Mayor of Haringey and veteran Labour councillor Sheila Peacock has been found guilty of trying use her powers of office to exert undue influence for personal advantage, writes the Broadway Ham and High
Haringey Council’s Standards Committee this week took the rare step of censuring her for trying “to secure an improper advantage for herself” by sending two letters on Mayoral headed paper “about a personal matter”.
Although further details were not published, the letters are understood to relate to a family member and were sent last autumn by email from her council laptop.
In a decision that will be an embarassment to the Haringey Labour group, the committee ruled that Cllr Peacock had “attempted to secure an improper advantage for herself” and had “failed to use the resources of the council in accordance with its reasonable requirements”, and thereby “also brought her office as Mayor into disrepute”.
It found that while “the contents of the letter were essentially those a member of the public could have raised”, Cllr Peacock tried to “get attention given to her concerns by using her Mayoral title, letterhead and e-mail address”. The opposition Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Richard Wilson has called for her to resign as Mayor “for the sake of the borough”.
Story by Stephen Moore
Tags for Forum Posts: Sheila Peacock
Missed out the words ". . . and reflecting carefully and contritely on my conduct have now withdrawn my nomination for councillor, out of respect for the residents of Northumberland Park Ward."
I suspect the people in charge of press at Haringey Labour weren't 'instructed' to write that.
A few months ago, Councillor Peacock attended a church service in Muswell Hill for the Induction of a new Pastor.
She took no part in the service: She did not join in the hymns, did not join in the prayers and did not take communion. No doubt there's no requirement that the Mayor be a practising Christian but, if she's not, why was she there ?
Was it just an outing for the mayoral regalia and car, or a hypocritical play for a photo op ?
As she's Jewish, I would not expect her to take communion or join in xtian hymns etc.
Fair enough Pamish: I didn't know that. But I still wonder why she was there and go with the photo op theory
As I understand it, it's the office not the person that matters in these ceremonial things. Hence the bling. Like in court, the wigs and paraphenalia mean that justice is neutral. Yes, snort, but having sat through a few court things I can see that the intention is good.
No excuse for using the metaphorical chain in a personal matter at all.
And no excuse for my cynicism. I apologise to Councillor Peacock.
I'd like to point out that Nilgun Canver was done for Perverting the Course of Justice and hung out to dry by the dear leader for far, far less. The key here is "Baby P Mayor".
and a barrister and part-time judge just got 16 months in the clink for colluding with the Hune/Price speed ticket scam. [I do think that's just a bit of a waste of my taxes, there are jobs round here she would be useful doing, orange jumpsuit and all.] She's made an example of, for bringing her office into disrepute more than anything else.
Couldn't Sheila have applied for Headship of Quintin Kynaston Academy? Her feet seem well suited to the shoes of Ms Shuter.
. . . and another thing: just remembered that my mother-in-law received her British Citizenship from said Mayor Sheila Paycock, in the least impressive of ceremonies imaginable. Qq. (a) Is it valid? (b) Should I advise her to hand it back? (c) As a member of an ungrateful family who have been vainly trying to lose our British Citizenship since 1922, 1800, 1558 or 1169, should I submit a prayerful petition to Mayor Sheila to grant me a Certificate of Citizenship to help me feel better about my subject status? (d) Or should I wait for the Second (or Third?) Incarnation of Mayor Gina in the hope that she'll grant me Dual British&Near Eastern Citizenship, which might be useful?
As soon as I got into the political loop, I started hearing snippets of gossip about this matter, which appeared to have been leaked by Ms Peacock's own comrades. I therefore deduced that there was a bit of an internal tussle going on within the group, with one faction trying oust members of another faction. I am still of this opinion and so inclined to agree with those of us speculating that perhaps the timing is not co-incidental.
btw, I know everyone on this forum will be shocked by such a theory, and will find it very hard to believe that the local party could have fallen in to such sorts of in-fighting and discord.
Lydia Rivlin: Conservative Party candidate for Harringay Ward.
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