A LABOUR councillor has been rapped by the standards watchdog for “intimidating” a colleague – after he was challenged over voting to cut nursery hours.
Gerry McGarvey has been banned from attending the next meeting of Stirling Council after looming over and berating an unnamed fellow councillor.
The incident took place during a break in proceedings at a council meeting on March 2, in which McGarvey was challenged after he voted for a decision “that effectively would cut nursery hours”, the Standards Commission for Scotland found.
The woman who challenged him has not been named in the standard watchdog’s report, which notes that she had “initiated the exchange by making what it considered to be a somewhat inflammatory comment to him”.
But McGarvey was found to have behaved in a way which “had fallen below the standards rightly expected of him”, the watchdog reported.
He was said to have been visibly angry at the complainant, who is stood over and repeatedly pointed at.
Helen Donaldson, Standards Commission member and chair of the hearing panel, said: “The panel found that Cllr McGarvey behaved in an intimidating and aggressive manner towards a colleague, during a verbal altercation about proposed cuts to nursery provision in their ward.”
The panel said it was reasonable for the target of McGarvey’s ire to have felt “shocked and shaken” by his conduct.
And it noted that he had apologised to her repeatedly; in person, by text and by email the same day.
Donaldson added: “The code of conduct does not prevent councillors from being able to express their views and opinions.
“The panel accepted that Cllr McGarvey had felt that the complainer had been ‘shirking responsibility’ as a politician and that he had sought to raise his concerns with her in this regard.
“The panel agreed, however, there was no reason why he could not have done so in a respectful manner, without losing his temper, resorting to aggressive behaviour and causing others to feel they had to intervene.
“The Standards Commission considers that the adherence to the code helps ensure a minimum standard of public debate, which in turn ensures public confidence in local government, the council and the role of a councillor from being is not undermined.”
Earlier this year, another Labour councillor in Stirling, Danny Gibson, was suspended from the council after he was found to have bullied a senior official.
McGarvey and Scottish Labour were approached for comment.
