Copies of incriminating emails between council officers, which the town council believed it had erased, have emerged as part of a wider Freedom of Information investigation. The emails were retained by another council after being sent externally by the town clerk discussing the councillor with officers at another council.
The emails reveal what appears to be coordinated pattern of hostility by council officers toward a town councillor behind closed doors.
The communications include discussions by council officers about how to handle and attempt to silence the elected councillor.
One email sent by the town clerk referred to the councillor in bold red text as:
“He who shall not be named”
In another exchange, the town clerk wrote:
“We had identified pretty quickly that there maybe some challenges with that Member.”
The email went on to outline discussions between officers regarding measures agreed to manage and control the councillor.
The emails revealed council officers discussing the councillor internally and with officers at another council as a problem they needed to handle, coordinating actions with another authority behind the scenes.
Penrith Town Council has confirmed the emails have been deleted from town council servers. The council provide no further comment.
Despite efforts by the town council to erase the emails from town council servers, copies of the emails survived because they had been sent externally by the town clerk to another council.
Those retained copies have been released as part of a wider Freedom of Information disclosures made to the separate authority.
The emails do not directly name the councillor involved but make a number of references about the councillor’s push for greater transparency within the council.
It is not known whether the coordinated actions were targeted at a single councillor or whether similar conduct by council officers has taken place against other elected members of the town council.
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