The Leader of Merton Council has been accused of bringing the council into disrepute and could face two formal investigations following complaints from residents and a Labour councillor.

A special meeting of the standards and general purposes committee on Tuesday, December 13, will hear a recommendation from the council’s monitoring officer Paul Evans and independent person Derek Prior that the Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Alambritis, should be subject to a formal council investigation following his actions in the council’s tax consultation.

A report due to be presented to the committee says that, as the complaints relate to the leader of the council, the circumstances should be counted as “exceptional” and the complaints treated as “serious matters”.

The report accepts that Cllr Alambritis and his colleagues were permitted to express a personal preference during the consultation period but raised concerns about data collection, the cost of using a council freepost address for non-council business, and the confusion for residents.

The report says: ‘The “consultation” exercise carried out by the Leader did not present a clear picture to the public that the exercise was a party political exercise and, as a result, can be considered to have diminished public confidence in the council’s own consultation process and the council to carry on business.’

Wimbledon Times:

The 'consultation' letter sent to residents

November 2: Formal complaints lodged against leader of Merton Council Stephen Alambritis as 'misleading' adult social care consultation draws to a close

Last year, local authorities were given the power to raise council tax by up to 1.99 per cent a year to help fund council services, and to raise council tax by a further two per cent specifically to fund adult social care.

Merton Council’s Labour group refused these options and cut adult social care by £5million in March. The controversy surrounding the decision prompted Cllr Alambritis to hold an official consultation into whether council tax should remain frozen.

It was argued the consultation, which ran from September 9 until November 4, was seriously undermined by Cllr Alambritis after he sent a letter to residents in Mitcham and Morden urging them to vote against raising council tax and allow him to keep his election promise of freezing council tax.

Along with the letter, which was also signed by St Helier Councillors Dennis Pearce, Jerome Neil and Imran Uddin, Cllr Alambritis sent out a separate questionnaire about whether to raise council tax which was clearly marked as a consultation. Unlike the official poll, neither the letter nor the questionnaire made any mention of adult social care, but it did demand the names and addresses of everyone who responded to it.

The alternate documents, despite containing a freepost envelope to return the questionnaire back to Merton Council’s consultation team, were not being counted as part of the consultation and were instead being returned to the Labour Party when they were received, the council confirmed.

Since the matter arose there have been seven formal complaints made to Merton Council about Cllr Alambritis’ actions.

Concerns include the confusion caused to residents, and the undermining of both the official consultation and the integrity of Merton Council as a whole.

Merton Labour group said the complaints were made because it tried to reach out to residents in Mitcham and Morden. 

Wimbledon Times:

The formal consultation

September 7: Council criticised ahead of public consultation into raising council tax to fund adult social care

Deputy leader and cabinet member for finance, Councillor Mark Allison, said: “As with any complaint, the council will go through the proper process, but it’s not surprising that people who want to increase council tax would complain when someone tries to find out what residents in Mitcham and Morden want.”

Another formal complaint has been made by Labour’s Councillor Jeff Hanna to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on the grounds of a security breach of data protection.

Cllr Hanna said: “It’s a misuse of data by the council. It’s not a political matter. It’s a straightforward issue that residents provided data for the council believing it would be held by the council and not go to anyone else.

“Most residents won’t even be aware that the council has handed over their data. They provided their names and addresses, their political views were made very clear on the form.

“It’s not appropriate for anyone outside of the council to have that information.”

A spokeswoman for the ICO said: “We are aware of a potential issue involving Merton Council and we are making enquiries.”

Merton Council received 2,942 responses to Cllr Alambritis’ questionnaire, in comparison with the 2,203 responses to the official consultation. Merton Labour has not yet released the results, but Merton Council revealed that more than three quarters of residents who responded to their consultation would support raising council tax.

November 22: Merton residents vote to raise council tax to protect adult social care services

The use of the freepost address has cost more than £1,000, although the report adds that Cllr Alambritis has apologised for this and promised to refund the council for any money lost. 

Asked for comment about the investigation, Cllr Alambritis said: “I think we need to allow the process to take its course. The committee is there to look at complaints made against councillors and needs to look at those complaints and take those seriously.

“A number of these complaints are about my actions in wanting to find out about what residents in Mitcham and Morden in particular think, and that has elicited a number of complaints.”

Merton Conservatives’ finance spokesman, Councillor David Williams, said: “It seems this Labour administration has moved from a general disregard for the consultation process to outright abuse of it.

“The leader of the council is now subject to two separate investigations for attempting deliberately to mislead residents and throw his own taxpayer funded council tax consultation. This risks bringing not just Merton Labour but the entire council into disrepute.

“The majority which Cllr Alambritis enjoys on the council should not give him the right to ride rough shod over the proper consultation process for his own political goals.”

What do you think? Email letters@wimbledonguardian.co.uk

To read the report click here.