UPDATED (17/6/21) Shepton Mallet Town Council - YET ANOTHER RESIGNATION! "No Going Back" Says Town Councillor

UPDATE (17/6/21): Following Andrew Pope's Statement and the Update From Nick Tolson which we published yesterday morning, Matt Harrison issued a Statement on the Town Council's website late yesterday.

---

In November 2020, after the last round of resignations at Shepton Mallet Town Council, Andrew Pope who is Leader of Somerset Independents, spoke at the Town Council virtual meeting to ask for a full independent investigation. Sadly, another councillor has now gone.

Andrew said at the meeting that the problems were long-standing and needed to be ended once-and-for-all, for the good of Shepton Mallet and its residents. He urged a full investigation into the deep-rooted problems.

Andrew's full speech is below*.

When Andrew followed up after the meeting, the Town Clerk responded to Andrew by saying:

"it is necessary to work together and move forward and will be speaking to Cllr Harrison about matters raised at the meeting."

Councillor Matt Harrison is the Chair of the Town Council. He is also one of the Future Shepton councillors who won almost all of the seats in the by-elections caused by the resignations.

Since November, much has changed. The by-elections happened in May 2021, many new Future Shepton councillors were elected and Shepton Town Council has acquired a new dynamism. Things seem to be getting done in the Town (e.g. the skate park is finally getting sorted out after years of neglect).

But there has now been YET ANOTHER RESIGNATION! Independent Shepton Town Councillor Nick Tolson has resigned. His full statement is below**.

When former Councillor Tolson resigned, Andrew asked Nick Tolson if he would reconsider overnight. Nick told Andrew:

"Definitely no going back. Understandably I’m now cut off from the council. If previous resignations are to go by the town clerk will send my resignation letter to everyone. There’s a meeting tonight so I hope they’ll discuss it’s content. Someone worked out that there have been 17 councillor resignations and 4 town clerk resignations due to bullying in the last ten years!"

Andrew says: 

"The new Chair and new team of councillors since the by-elections should be applauded. Somerset Independents congratulates Future Shepton and all town councillors who have achieved the progress that Shepton Mallet and its people deserve.

So many resignations of councillors and town clerks are very sad statistics. This instability has to be ended now.

We hope that the long-standing problems can now be addressed and we leave it to the Town Council to reconsider my suggestion for a full independent investigation and to act on those recommendations. I have written to the Town Clerk again.

Hopefully the Monitoring Officer who is supposed to be responsible for ensuring due process in the Mendip area, will assist in those investigations to finally deal properly with the problems. It is difficult though to have confidence in the incumbent Monitoring Officer, given that the basics of governance at Mendip District Council continue to be ignored. Our website shows examples such as the Mendip Scrutiny Chair presiding over his own election and investigations into councillors not being conducted properly.

We offer our assistance to the Town Council again to try to bring stability and progress to Shepton Mallet and its people. We wish them well."

 

**Statement from (now Former) Councillor Nick Tolson, Shepton Mallet Town Council

"It is with extreme regret that I feel I must resign from the council.

Unfortunately, the council has failed to acknowledge and deal with the bullying behaviour of some councillors as identified by the Monitoring Officer in December last year.

Despite many opportunities to take action the council has failed to do so.

I can only conclude that that there is not the will within the council to deal with this behaviour that 'could be seen as bullying/intimidatory' in a prompt and appropriate manner.

As you know, Shepton Mallet Town Council has a history of accusations of bullying and intimidation. We have lost several Town Clerks and many councillors due to this. Our last Chairman and Vice Chairman both resigned siting bullying as an issue. Yet the council does nothing.

It seems to me that the council has institutional bullying and by that I mean that the bullying is entrenched and accepted as normal behaviour by the body as it had taken no prompt or practicable action to address this difficult issue.

I cannot continue in an organisation that permits bullying to continue unchallenged.

On a positive note, there is no doubt that the council has improved immensely and is starting to achieve things. However, the council will not move forward significantly until the bad behaviour of some councillors is addressed and they (and the council as a body) accept there is a problem.

As the Met Police accepted following the Stephen Lawrence enquiry, “In order to change everyone in the organisation has to accept that there is a problem.” Shepton Mallet Town Council has to look inwardly, look at the historic issues, accept there is a problem and then tackle it.

Mandatory Training, acknowledgement of bad behaviour, making a formal statement that bullying/bad behaviour is never acceptable, getting everyone, employees, and councillors to formally sign up to an anti-bullying policy would be a start.

I apologise to all the people who voted for me for not completing my full term but I cannot work with some councillors who do not even recognise that their behaviour is unacceptable.

*Andrew Pope Speech To Shepton Mallet Town Council EGM on 10^th November 2020

"Good Evening.

I am Andrew Pope, a local resident and Leader of Somerset Independents, a pressure group that stands up for Somerset’s residents. I am a former Independent City Councillor in Southampton and I was previously a Group Whip of the Labour Group on Southampton City Council. So I know what can go wrong, but I also know how to put things right.

For some time now, I have become increasingly concerned with the problems in Shepton Mallet Town Council.

The more I have looked and the more I have found out, the worse things have seemed.

I was hoping that the historical problems would be sorted out. But I am disappointed that they have not.

If anything, things have seemed to get even worse, with the Chair, Vice-Chair and Chair of the HR Committee all resigning at once.

Shepton Mallet the Town, and Shepton Mallet’s people, deserve better.

So do the people who live around Shepton Mallet, such as I do, in Lamyatt.

I want to see Shepton thrive and its people do too. I’m sure that I’m not alone in this feeling.

The continuing in-fighting and resignations are not doing Shepton’s people any favours. They are what matter most, and they are who the Town Council and its councillors are supposed to serve.

So I ask please, to help ensure that the change that is needed happens now, two things:

Firstly, I would like it to be confirmed that a full and independent investigation is done into the recent councillor resignations, as well as the previous resignations of both councillors and town clerks. There have been so many that there has to be serious problems that have not been addressed.

Secondly, I would like to ask that the resignation letters be published, so that Shepton’s people can make up their own minds as to what the problems with the Town Council are, and can then make their own judgements whether the steps required have been taken, and by the right people, and soon.

So to repeat: Please, a full and independent investigation into all the resignations – now and historical – and the publication, with names redacted if deemed necessary, of the resignation letters.

Thank you for listening and I hope that you will do as I suggest, for the good of Shepton Mallet and its people."