Disgraceful Slander at Council Meeting.

A FORMAL complaint has been made against Conservative Cllr David Burgess-Joyce after he shouted out at a Wirral Council meeting. He currently represents Greasby, Frankby and Irby, but is running as a candidate for Heswall in this year's elections after he was deselected in Greasby last year.

During Wirral Council's budget setting meeting, Cllr Burgess-Joyce made the allegation the Liberal Democrats had taken "bribes" in order to support the plans. Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Carubia who was speaking at the time asked whether that was an actual allegation, to which Cllr Burgess-Joyce responded: "I apologise for having a debate. No, parties are oiled with regards to…"

The comments led to Mayor Jeff Green interrupting the meeting to ask Cllr Burgess-Joyce if he had apologised. Cllr Burgess-Joyce said he had apologised for speaking across the floor.

Cllr Carubia called for Cllr Burgess-Joyce to apologise for the "bribes" comment and Cllr Burgess-Joyce said: "I unreservedly, is that the word we are looking for, apologise. Everybody in the room including us is lovely and couldn't possibly do anything like that."

Wirral's Liberal Democrats said they've now filed a formal complaint against Cllr Burgess-Joyce about the comments, in particular the allegation of bribes, with councillors asking for a full apology at the next full council meeting.

Cllr Carubia told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): "I was annoyed at the time. I know what he said, he started off saying about bribes but I think what made things worse was that he didn't apologise but he then had a second go that the Lib Dems were 'oiled'.

He said he'd received comments on social media since the meeting, adding: "I am really cross. I it is difficult being in the public eye and I didn't want to make a big song and dance about it but you can't let people get away with slander. If he had apologised properly at the time, that would have been the end of it but he was just being flippant about the whole thing."

Cllr Burgess-Joyce is well aware that mud sticks. It is disgraceful of him to make baseless allegations and then to half-apologise. If he has any evidence that councillors have been bribed, he is duty bound to provide that to the Council's Monitoring Officer. He has not done so as no evidence exists.

Cllr Phil Gilchrist, leader of Wirral's Liberal Democrat group, said: "The idea any members of my group took bribes during this process is baseless. Members were motivated by their desire to take account of public concern and residents' interests, nothing else."