A bungling council officer breached strict purdah guidelines by promoting a Conservative parliamentary candidate’s petition last week.
Under the rules governing how authorities should behave during an election, councils are not allowed to issue any information giving an unfair bias to one political party during the election period, which began on March 29.
More than 800 people linked to neighbourhood partnerships in Croydon received the email last Monday with a link to a petition to save Mayday’s accident and emergency by Conservative parliamentary candidate for Croydon North Jason Hadden.
Two hours later when the mistake was noticed, another email was sent out with a copy of a Health Secretary Andy Burnham’s letter to Croydon North Labour MP Malcolm Wicks assuring him the A&E was safe.
Julie Belvir, the director of democratic and legal services, was forced to send out a third email explaining the situation with a copy of Malcolm Wicks’s letter attached as well as Mr Hadden’s petition.
Mr Hadden said: “The whole thing is a complete cock-up.
“It came as a complete surprise to me. I did not ask for that to be sent out.”
He said they had an extra 100 people sign the petition on that day which now has 3,000 signatories.
Croydon North MP Malcolm Wicks said: “They should not have sent out the email in the first place. I suppose they realised their mistake and tried to redress it. It is a comedy of errors.”
A spokesman for Croydon Council said: “The council apologises for the original error and the officer in question has been advised on how to avoid such situations in the future.
“The episode underlines the importance of all council officers following the guidance issued by the returning officer and the borough solicitor.”
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