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Islington Tribune - by ROISIN GADELRAB
Published: 22 August 2008

Catherine West

No minutes for ‘gay comments’ meeting

DETAILS of the explosive meeting which plunged Labour Group leader Catherine West into a council standards investigation have been left out of the Town Hall minutes.
Although Councillor West’s comments were considered so serious that education chief Ursula Woolley felt it necessary to make a formal complaint, the Tribune has discovered they were not thought significant enough to be included in the official record of the meeting.
Cllr West was accused of making fun of Lib Dem deputy leader Terry Stacy, who is gay, during a debate on green spaces at the July 3 executive meeting.
Although councillors and staff are banned from discussing ongoing investigations, the Labour leader’s allies claim her comments were misinterpreted.
The standards committee is looking into suggestions Cllr West “failed to promote equality by discriminating against Cllr Stacy regarding his sexual orientation”, “acted in a way that went against public confidence in the council” and that she brought the members’ office of the authority “into disrepute”.
A council spokesman said: “We do not comment on individual cases. Council meetings are minuted to note the decisions made rather than to capture all exchanges between debators or comments made.”

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