Councillor apologises for telling call handler to speak English

A councillor who told a council call handler to "speak English" has been reprimanded and must complete extra training.

Independent councillor Janet Cleverly made the comments when she was reporting a fly-tipping incident to Newport City Council.

An ombudsman's investigation described the Bettws ward councillor's comments as "derogatory and humiliating" and "not what is expected of an elected member".

Cleverly apologised and told a council standards committee she was "mortified" by her actions.

During the phone conversation, the call handler tried to tell the councillor about "disruptive sounds" on the line and asked her to repeat certain information.

According to the ombudsman's report, Cleverly then interrupted the call handler and said: "I'm sorry, can I speak to somebody who's speaking English?"

A few minutes later, the call handler was clarifying details when Cleverly said: "Sorry? I can't understand anything you're saying. Speak English."

Cleverly emailed the council's cabinet member responsible for environmental matters later that day in which she wrote: "I am all for equal opportunity but this person took all my information wrong after I had to repeat everything 3-4 times and spell everything lots of times."

A manager in the customer services team listened to the recorded call and flagged concerns about the councillor's "unnecessary" tone, prompting a probe.

A council monitoring officer said he considered the call handler's English to be fluent and Cleverly's comments to be "consciously or otherwise, racially motivated" and "discriminatory".

According to the report, the call handler was "very emotional and upset" about the incident, but went on to withdraw from the investigation.

Cleverly later told the ombudsman's office she had "worked in BME communities" - black and minority ethnic - in her career as a youth and community worker and had "lots of BME friends".

She described the call as a "really bad line" and apologised if she had upset the call handler as it was "not my intention".

Parts of Thursday's committee hearing took place in private to protect the identity of the call handler, who was not present.

"I was absolutely mortified by my actions that day," Cleverly told the panel.

The committee found Cleverly had breached three areas of the council's code for members relating to equality, respect and consideration of others, and disreputable conduct.