A MEMBER OF Greenwich Council’s cabinet will this week appear before a meeting of the Standards Committee.
A meeting of the committee will take place on Monday at Woolwich Town Hall behind closed doors. Although the published agenda doesn’t name the subject of the investigation, this website understands they will be considering a complaint against Councillor John Fahy.
Cllr Fahy will be responding to claims made about his handling of the transfer to library services to social enterprise Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) earlier this year.
The cabinet member, who was in charge of culture and preparing for London 2012 until just a few months before the Games, and the MD of GLL are both directors of a charity supporting education and sports projects in Ghana.
Cllr Fahy was unavailable for comment and Greenwich Council declined to comment.
The only voting members of the committee are the three councillors, the independents are basically just for show, Labour councillors Brooks and Walker are the two main lieutenants of Council Leader Chris Roberts and will effectively be sitting in judgment on the Leader’s main opponent within the Labour Group. Their powers are limited but they could recommend that John Fahy be sacked from the Cabinet. And they don’t have to sit in secret. It’s entirely their own choice if they do so.
Something’s not quite right here.
As I understand it, the real issue may well come when Fahy faces the Labour group (another secret meeting) – which may withdraw the whip, forcing him to become an independent and scuppering his chances of being selected for 2014’s election.
They sat in public after all this morning. I left before the decision was announced but it looks like that John Fahy will get a mild reprimand for being slapdash when making declarations of interests. On what I heard that would be fair.
I think I owe the independent members an apology. Susan Blackall chaired the meeting very well and Sir Michael Pike caused a sudden u-turn from the Labour councillors when he recommended that it would be wrong to sit in secret.
Key points made were:
* The original complainant has basically lost interest. Their grievance was really about the principle of handing over the libraries to GLL and councillor behaviour was a side issue.
* The organisation Meridian Link is purely charitable and JF gets no benefit from it. He paid his own fare last time he went to Ghana.
* JF spontaneously declared his directorship of Meridian Link in October 2011 before any complaint was made.
Councillor Alex Grant was present as JF’s supporter. A redacted verison ofv the papers will be placed on te Council’s website in due course.
The whole business was verey reminiscent of a case a few years back when Maureen O’Mara, who was chair of planning at the time, forgot vto declare a connection with Tiwnke Park charitable trust
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/lifestyle/lifestyle/2006/08/16/NEWS+Lewisham+%26+Greenwich/879012.Councillor____should_go___/
Both were an embarrassing slip by a reputable person and shouldn’t have any long term consequences for vthem.
And somebody pointed out teh leephant in te room – that Fahy’s connection with Merdian Link viz a vuiz the GLL managment was not really any diffreent from Chris Rioberts’s connectuion with Greenwich Starring Blocks.
Thanks for this, Paul – good to have a bit of light on this dark process.
Greenwich Starting Blocks is a funny old thing, isn’t it?
Great stuff Paul, thanks!