A COUNCILLOR has been found guilty of sending a barrage or intimidating emails to a council employee.

It is the fifth time in as many weeks Clr Robert Brierley, independent ward member for Hindley Green, has been found guilty of breaching Wigan Council’s code of conduct.

This week's hearing, which took place yesterday, Wednesday, was the fifth of six due to be held each week until early-November against Clr Brierley, who failed to attend.

The panel decided there was sufficient information to proceed without him and the meeting was held in private to protect the identity of the complainant and witnesses involved.

The panel heard how Clr Brierley had sent a number of intimidating emails to the complainant.

In one email, addressed to all councillors and senior members of staff, Clr Brierley called for the complainant’s suspension after his Brighter Borough funding application was refused.

Applications for funding need to be submitted for approval before the money is allocated but Clr Brierley failed to follow the procedure and instead sent a bill totalling £1,322 after the work, to drop some kerbs, had been completed.

Under the Brighter Borough criteria, schemes must benefit the wider community. As this scheme would only benefit a small number of private households, the application was unsuccessful.

In response Clr Brierley sent a number of intimidating emails to the complainant before calling for their suspension, the hearing found.

The complainant claimed they felt threatened by Clr Brierley’s attitude and as a consequence no longer has direct contact with him.

After hearing the evidence, the panel found Clr Brierley guilty of subjecting the complainant to intimidating behaviour and therefore breached paragraphs 3.1 (b) and (d) and 6 (b) of the members’ code of conduct and paragraph 4.1 and 6.5 of the protocol on member/officer relations.

The decision on sanctions will be deferred until next month.

David Hope, GMB Union rep for Wigan, said: “No member of staff deserves to be threatened, bullied and intimidated in their place of work.

“Council workers come to work to make a difference to the communities they serve and deserve to be treated with high levels of respect and dignity.

“We welcome the findings of the panel and hope Clr Brierley will radically change his behaviour towards council staff as a result.

“The GMB union will continue to support the rights of our members and ensure they are treated with respect in the workplace.”

The coalition government abolished the Standards Board for England as part of the Localism Bill in 2012. As a result local authorities no longer have the power to suspend or disqualify councillors who bully, are rude, or disclose confidential information.