New County Council Leader broke rules as a City Councillor but won't face punishment

The new leader of Derbyshire County Council has been found to have made a serious breach of council rules as a city councillor – but won’t face punishment.

Reform councillor Alan Graves was grilled by councillors and legal representatives of Derby City Council over his actions when he posted a video on social media which disclosed confidential information.

Local Democracy Reporter Nigel Slater said that the four-hour hearing was held just one day after he was appointed the leader of the county council following Reform’s election win earlier this month. Councillor Graves won a seat to represent Aston-on-Trent on the county council. He remains an Alvaston councillor for Derby City Council.

Councillor Graves, it was concluded, disclosed confidential information from council papers in the video. In it, he expressed his frustrations over being attacked on social media by another Derby councillor. The video has since been removed.

It all relates to when Cllr Graves was the Mayor of Derby in 2023. When he was elected mayor, furious Labour councillors walked out of the mayor-making ceremony in protest.

Months later it was reported that Labour councillor Sarah Chambers – during the ceremony – attacked Cllr Graves in a deeply offensive Facebook post.

Cllr Graves called for justice and wanted an apology from the councillor. But he was left furious when he was told the matter was closed after the councillor apologised to the council’s monitoring officer but not to him.

He then expressed his dismay by posting a video in which he shared confidential details about how the situation was handled. This detail was from a council report which was exempt from the public and the press.

Councillor Graves said he did not regret posting the video as he felt it was his way of calling for justice after being let down by the council’s monitoring officer.

The council’s monitoring officer Emily Feenan, who lodged the complaint about the video to the council’s standards committee, told the hearing she repeatedly asked for the video to be removed, which Cllr Graves refused until it reached the committee for investigation.

Councillors attending the hearing ruled that Cllr Graves had broken the councillors’ code of conduct. But it decided to take no action against him.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Graves said: “In a technical sense they have found me to have breached the regulations – however it has exposed, which is what I wanted it to do, the injustices that happen in this council on a daily and weekly basis.”

Cllr Graves said he did not feel the ruling had damaged his reputation. He added: “I didn’t get the justice I deserved.”

Chair of the hearing Councillor Steve Hassall said: “The decision is to apply no sanctions to Councillor Graves.

“We recognise that Alan believed he was acting in the public interest. He was entitled to feel aggrieved by the original social media post, comments and the outcome of the standards procedures.”

The hearing initially was scheduled to be private. But Cllr Graves and the majority of councillors at the hearing wanted it to be made public.

“I have nothing to hide,” Cllr Graves said at the start of the hearing.

When the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported the video in December 2023, Derby City Council released the following statement: “The council is aware of the video posted by Councillor Alan Graves on his Facebook profile and other social media platforms. In the video, Councillor Graves reads from the contents of a report to the standards committee that was exempt from publication, i.e. confidential.

“The Councillors’ Code of Conduct clearly states that councillors must not disclose information provided to them in confidence. It is on this basis that the council’s monitoring officer has asked Councillor Graves to remove the video.

“It is by longstanding agreement of the standards committee that details of complaints against councillors remain confidential until such point as a complaint has been upheld. Councillor Graves has been a member of the standards committee for several years and is fully aware of this cross-party agreement.”

Around the same time Councillor Chambers gave her side of the story. She said: “An official complaint was submitted by a member of the public. I answered that complaint, with various measures and was informed on August 29 2023 that my response had been accepted and the matter was closed.

“I’m not sure why nearly three months later, Councillor Graves, who is part of the standards committee and knows the rules more than most, has publicly decided to breach several Councillor Code of Conduct rules.”