News / Politics
Green councillor crowdfunding in order to sue for defamation
More than £1000 has already been raised to fund the legal rebuttal of alleged defamation towards a planning committee chair.
The crowdfunder has been started by Ani Stafford-Townsend, Green Party councillor for central ward and chair of Development Control Committee B at Bristol City Council.
Stafford-Townsend says they are “currently being attacked by the administration with false allegations which I consider defamatory”.
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It comes after the Labour Party released a statement following a planning committee meeting in November granting permission for the expansion of South Bristol Cemetery & Crematorium which said that Stafford-Townsend’s “poor chairing” of the meeting and their “inflammatory comments” led to “members of the committee and staff (being) subject to unacceptable behaviour”.
Labour’s statement said that Stafford-Townsend “also witnessed the abuse from a member of the public and did not challenge it at the time”.
In Stafford-Townsend’s own words, “tensions ran high, and following the eventual passing of the application and conclusion of the meeting there was some heckling from the public”.
Video footage shows that after the meeting had ended, a female member of the public – who Bristol24/7 understands is Muslim – shouted at councillors who had approved the expansion of the cemetery onto land used by Yew Tree Farm.
She said: “They are people that represent us, not sitting there saying that, I am a Muslim, I am not expecting my relatives to die now and then just keep that area for them for their use my religion to approve something…
“That is absolutely the use of something irrelevant, completely irrelevant.”
In response, Labour councillor Farah Hussain, who represents Central ward alongside Stafford-Townsend, said: “I am not accepting that… you are not bringing my religion into this.”
A student filmmaker from UWE, Nikki Dodd, filmed part of what happened:
Bristol’s Green group of councillors has requested that the Labour group apologise to Stafford-Townsend and the member of the public who they claimed “targeted racial and religious abuse”.
“Labour has declined to do so, therefore I am crowdfunding in order to sue for defamation,” writes Stafford-Towsend on the crowdfunding page which hopes to raise £10,000.
“It is my belief that Bristol Labour are using these allegations to distract from the administration’s serious mishandling of planning in the city.
“Bristol’s planning system is in disarray and dysfunctional.
“The administration has made cuts to the planning department, yet blames officers and Green councillors for the lengthy backlog of undetermined planning applications.
“This has culminated in residents bringing a petition to full council in December declaring a loss of confidence in the planning system following the mishandling of a controversial planning application by Development Control Committee A.
“I have long held that development control committees are a demonstration of councillors working cross party, in a non partisan manner, informed by their values.
“Legally that’s how a regulatory committee is supposed to work, and it’s how councillors generally should be striving to work together for the benefit of our city and our residents.
“The administration should be supporting the efforts of chairs to ensure we meet our regulatory obligations and robustly consider applications.
“The administration should be working to improve the trust that the city has in the planning department and taking care of our planning officers, members of the public attending, and ensuring residents’ areas of concern are rectified.
“We should hold ourselves to high account, and just like I do not condone intimidation of officers or councillors, we councillors must not intimidate others, especially people from minority communities.
“It erodes public trust in the council, in the planning system, and disengages the public from democracy.
“Politicians should not be allowed to libel, slander and defame the public or the opposition, unchecked and without resistance.”
Ani Stafford-Townsend chairing the planning committee meeting on Yew Tree Farm at City Hall – photo: Rob Browne
Stafford-Townsend told Bristol24/7: “The administration should not be seeking to distract from its own failures by making false accusations towards members of the public.
“Nor should they be intimidating members of the public from democratic engagement.
“Whatever a councillor may have misheard or misinterpreted, actual events and words were clarified when video evidence surfaced swiftly.
“That’s where this matter should have been left, rather than further repeated by others.”
The Labour Party have been asked for comment.
Main photo: Rob Browne; video: Nikki Dodd
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