Ernie Clark. Hilperton Division, Wiltshire Council.

Oops. WC admits to jungle bungle.

Earlier this year the council was, quite rightly, derided by councillors, members of the public and the press when health watchdog the Wiltshire Involvement Network (WIN) was banned from working with the council after the use of the phrase 'jungle drums' at a meeting in August 2010.

A WC report at the time claimed the phrase was racist and upheld the complaint made against WIN. My original web post can be found by clicking here.

After the story got into the national press, WC re-opened the matter and started another enquiry. This will be presented to the WC cabinet next week. The new report states:

'There was a failure to follow the rules of natural justice, as those who were the subject of the complaint investigation were not given an opportunity to make representations on the allegations.

The decision to suspend contact was inappropriate and potentially in breach of a statutory duty imposed on Wiltshire Council.'

The review concludes that the previous report should be withdrawn, and the process of dealing with organisations such as WIN should be re-examined. The review, carried out by a council lawyer, follows the convention of internal reviews by saying that despite the bungling, incompetent way WC handled the matter, nobody was to blame. The legal officer does though point out that had council officers contacted the legal department before suspending WIN then many of the misunderstandings and potentially unlawful actions could have been avoided.

The Conservative administration defended the original report, much to the hilarity of just about every non-Conservative councillor. In fact, Independent councillor Russell Hawker has asked two formal questions of the Leader on this topic and it will be interesting to see whether the ruling Conservatives will apologise to WIN for their actions.

The full report can be read by clicking here and looking down for item 9.