Aberdeenshire councillor suspended after making 'inappropriate' comments about Gypsy Travellers

An Aberdeenshire councillor has been suspended for two months after she was found to have made “inappropriate” comments about Gypsy Travellers.

Wendy Agnew was thought to have suggested that “gypsies are not British people” at a Kincardine and Mearns area committee meeting back in November 2023.

Her comments were made during discussions around retrospective plans to change the use of the Findon Park football pitch near Portlethen into a Gypsy Travellers site.

The incident sparked some controversy and resulted in Agnew stepping down as committee chairwoman.

A councillor colleague made a complaint about her comments the following month and an investigation was carried out by the ethical standards commissioner.

In April, the Standards Commission was sent a report that suggested that Agnew had breached the Councillor’s Code of Conduct.

The Stonehaven member faced the Standards Commission on Tuesday to face the consequences of her comments.

Ethical standards commissioner Ian Bruce said: “The respondent made inappropriate comments about Gypsy Travellers and the appropriateness of granting a retrospective planning application for a Gypsy Traveller site, including insinuating that they are not British.

“This was deemed a failure to treat everyone with courtesy or respect, and also a failure to advance equality of opportunity and to seek to foster good relations between different people.”

Wendy Agnew, Aberdeenshire Council Aberdeenshire Council

At the meeting, Agnew admitted she didn’t “feel hatred” towards Gypsy Travellers and blamed her comments on “clumsy language”.

The councillor also stated that she had “no intent to be disrespectful”.

Before the recording of the meeting was published online to YouTube, it had been edited to remove Agnew’s comments.

The council’s head of legal and people, Karen Wiles, admitted this had been done to prevent the local authority from facing any potential legal challenges.

She said: “It was apparent to me that people of a Gypsy Traveller community may have seen themselves as being differentiated from British people.

“That could be offensive since the two terms are not mutually exclusive.”

Standards Commission member and chair of the hearing panel, Helen Donaldson, said members found Agnew had treated the applicant “less favourably” because she was a Gypsy Traveller.

They based this on Agnew’s suggested knowledge of unauthorised use of a different site and an assumption that travellers were “more likely to breach planning conditions”.

Ms Donaldson added: “The provisions that state councillors must be respectful, must foster good relations between different people and must avoid any perception that they are not acting fairly and without bias when making decisions on quasi-judicial matters, such as planning applications, are key requirements of the Councillors’ Code.

“The panel noted that a failure to comply with the code’s provisions in this regard can have a detrimental impact on the right of an applicant to be treated fairly, and can erode public confidence in the role of a councillor.

“Such a failure also had the potential to bring the committee, the council and its decisions into disrepute and open it up to the risk of a successful legal challenge.”

The panel found that Agnew had breached paragraphs 3.1, 3.2, 7.4a, 7.4c and 7.5a of the councillor’s code of conduct.

Members then decided to hand the Stonehaven councillor a two-month suspension.

This means she will not be allowed to attend any meetings or represent Aberdeenshire Council during this time.