THE Green Party has apologised after falsely claiming The Argus added a line to a councillor’s tweet in a news report.

At a Brighton and Hove City Council meeting on August 13, Green councillor Sarah Nield said the newspaper had “added a line to her tweet about laughing which simply was not there” in an article published that day.

However the Green leader Phélim Mac Cafferty has said this claim is incorrect and has apologised on behalf of the party.

The Argus:

In the full council meeting, Cllr Nield said: “The article that was in The Argus today has taken a tweet about a completely different subject, it was about how quickly I got into the tip by using the pedestrian side entrance.

"They have added a line to say that I laughed, moved the location of the tweet to be about a different topic, which is about the cycle lane and the traffic backed up on the road and based their article on some line that they added to my tweet about laughing, which simply was not there.

"That’s all I have to say about it, this is a work of fiction, it’s been a very upsetting day for me and I just want to put that on the record.”

However The Argus had not added any lines and the Green Party has now apologised and removed that part of the meeting from council records.

The tweet in the article said: “(I) took three big bags of stuff to Hove recycling centre on foot at 3pm. Got straight in, all worked smoothly, laughed at queue of cars on our way out. Also, (I) counted 28 cyclists on Old Shoreham Road new cycle lanes while walking from Hove Park to tip and back.”

The Argus:

The Argus contacted the Green Party to correct Cllr Nield’s statement. That part has now been removed from the council’s webcast – the filmed recording of the proceedings.

The party said the Green councillor had mistakenly believed the article was based on another, separate tweet in which she said she had “smirked” at a queue of cars. The correct tweet referred to in the story had been sent to the party prior to the story being published in order to get a response as per journalistic practice.

The party provided a response for the story and that was published. In it Cllr Nield apologised for any offence caused to anyone driving to the tip.

The Green Party leader Phélim Mac Cafferty has sent this apology to The Argus on behalf of the group.

He said: “During a recent meeting of council, Councillor Sarah Nield incorrectly stated that The Argus had falsely added a line to a tweet from her. This is not the case. We are happy to provide this clarification and apologise to The Argus for this.”