Chapel-en-le-Frith councillor cleared over ‘filming ban’ Facebook post

Councillor Nigel Gourlay was accused of breaking the rules after he wrote on Facebook that councillors held a vote to ‘ban filming’ of council meetings.

Coun Gourlay wrote how - during part of a council meeting from which the public was excluded - councillors voted on a motion ‘that no filming of meetings should take place in respect of attendees...who are not elected members’.

Mr Gourlay also published the exact minute recording of the council’s decision in November 2019 - that: “The Council does not allow the filming of meetings until a policy is in place in respect of attendees at meetings who are not elected members’.

Filming of council meetings has been allowed since 2014 - when laws changed meaning ‘councils and other local government bodies are required to allow any member of the public to take photographs, film and audio-record the proceedings and report on all public meetings’.

Mr Gourlay - a member of the council since July 2018 - started filming council meetings in 2019.

Reacting to the ‘confidential’ finding - leaked this week to Buxton Advertiser - Nigel told how the first video of a council meeting he posted on Facebook received over 3000 views in the first week.

He said: “It was obvious that people in Chapel wanted to see their councillors and hold them to account.”

However Mr Gourlay believes his recordings were seen by fellow councillors as ‘an unwelcome limitation to their powers’.

He said: “They banned filming and used the complaints procedure to prevent that ban from being discussed publicly.

“Like tuppenny-bit despots they have sought to restrict any openness in the council’s business and I feel very relieved that this investigation has stuck two fingers up to them.”

The investigation report tells how the complaint against Coun Gourlay was made by fellow councillor Paddy Bann.

Councillor Bann - who works as a taxi driver - pointed to comments made on Mr Gourlay’s post by other Facebook users calling for a ‘ban’ on travelling in his taxi.

Mr Bann said this had damaged his business as he had stopped receiving calls from Chapel’s Old Cell and New Inn pubs - bars where Coun Gourlay’s friends were known to drink.

However the solicitor who conducted the investigation found there had been no breach of conduct by Coun Gourlay.

They wrote (SIC) how it was ‘a matter of public interest whether the Council was complying with its legal obligation to allow the filming of meetings, which has been in force since August 2014’.

The report read: “Therefore, in my view Coun Gourlay was justified in making public the decision of the Council and in publishing the councillors who proposed and seconded the motion.”

With regard to comments made to Coun Gourlay’s post the report read that this was ‘unfortunate and unnecessary’ but Coun Gourlay ‘cannot be held responsible under the Code for the actions of this person’.

Chapel-en-le Frith Parish Council has been contacted for comment.

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