Complaints Panel to decide if snaps are allowed in Town Hall meetings. (From The Argus)

Complaints Panel to decide if snaps are allowed in Town Hall meetings.

9:15pm Sunday 4th December 2011 in Community By Roy Pennington, community correspondent

A member of the public complained that a councillor took photos of the noisy public gallery at the last budget setting meeting in March, despite being asked to stop doing so by another member of the public.

The Standards Board Panel will consider (Dec 13th) if former Councillor Older had failed to give sufficient respect to the public and in so doing put her office as a councillor into disrepute.

The fact that Ms Older is no longer a councillor is irrelevant: she stood down last May as ward councillor in Central Hove. Nor is it relevant that no other member of the public had made any complaint. And it does not matter that the whole council chamber was monitored by web-cams anyway.

The meeting starts at 10 am in Hove Town Hall and will not be web-casted. The panel members will be Councillor Jason Kitcat , Councillor Ann Norman and Dr M Wilkinson.

Cllr Kitcat was hauled over the coals by the same Standards Board Committee two years for blogging about a meeting in which he used some of the council’s own footage to slightly diss another councillor. He won the appeal.

The complainant, Ms Holly Smith, made her complaint in a personal capacity. She is an employee of the Council and GMB shop-steward.