Lord Mayor faces tree row rap

From the Oxford Mail, first published Friday 19th Sep 2008.

Oxford's Lord Mayor Susanna Pressel faced a standards hearing today - for the way she represented her constituents in the Osney Island willows saga.

Ms Pressel was hauled before Oxford City Council's standards committee for "failing to treat others with respect" when a row blew up over the controversial felling of 11 willow trees on Osney Island, part of the ward she represents, in 2006.

A campaign by residents, which she supported, to save the 11 trees was unsuccessful.

The complaint was made by an unnamed council officer. If the committee finds she is guilty of breaching a national code of conduct, she could be publicly reprimanded - or even suspended from the council for three months.

Before the behind-closed-doors meeting at the Town Hall in St Aldate's, Ms Pressel's solicitor Frances Randle urged the standards committee to allow the hearing to be heard in public - but councillors voted three-one for it to be in private and the Oxford Mail was ordered to leave.

Ms Randle said: "Public interest in these circumstances must override an individual's right to privacy.

"If an allegation is made in private, it will throw to the wind confidence in the process we are going through today - the public deserve an explanation about what happened."

In a recent newsletter to voters on Osney Island, Ms Pressel told them that she had been reported to the national local government standards board, which oversees the conduct of councillors across the country.

The Labour councillor for Jericho and Osney added: "They have at last decided to ask the city council's standards committee to decide on the case.

"I'm sorry to say that I could be suspended - very unusual for a Lord Mayor."

Committee chairman John Lay said the reasons for the committee's decision would be given "full publicity".

City council leader Bob Price said the complaint against Ms Pressel had been reported to the standards board by the former interim chief executive Brian Dinsdale.

He added: "The standards board found the complaint to be untrue and then substituted another one in its place.

"I am sure it is the first time in Oxford a Lord Mayor has been brought before a standards committee, and I don't think this reflects very well on the system of local government.

"There was no complaint from councillors - and there was no political dimension to this whatsoever."

Richard Thurston, chairman of the Osney Island Residents' Association, said: "If Susanna is suspended as our local councillor, it would be an astonishing breach of democracy.

"She was trying to represent her constituents - and that is what we elected her for.

"The crux of this is whether or not she overstepped the mark in the way she conducted herself, according to the councillors' code of conduct."

The hearing was adjourned yesterday to reconvene at a later date.

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