Shock as council leader ridicules cabinet query

A FORMER Labour councillor has said he was 'taken aback' when he questioned Plymouth City Council leader Tudor Evans over criticism from a High Court Judge, only to be told 'don't be ridiculous!

-  ANDY PHILLIPS

Mike Sheaff, who represented Labour on the city council in the 1990s, had asked Cllr Evans - a former colleague whether criticism made in a High Court judgement into the felling of trees on Armada Way was as a result of his own direction to council officers.

The question, made in front of the council’s own cameras at their cabinet meeting, was: “A High Court judgment described the council’s conduct as “highly unsatisfactory”, revealing a “lack of transparency” and “inadequate compliance with its duty of candour to the court.” Did you request officers to adopt this approach, and if not when did you learn of it, and do you consider it acceptable?”

But video from the meeting shows the city council leader hesitate before responding: “Don’t be ridiculous – that’s my answer.”

Mr Sheaff has told The Herald that the answer seemed ‘unnecessarily aggressive’ as well as making little sense.

He said: “I’ve known Tudor since 1982 – we first met when he was a student – and I campaigned for him in the 1989 Ham by-election, we were councillors together in the 1990s, we’ve known each other since then and I regard him as a friend. So I was taken aback.