Parking ticket e-mail row

If you get a parking ticket count to 10 before you do anything...

A councillor who called council staff “blind and stupid” has issued an apology after the contents of his offensive e-mail were released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Basingstoke Gazette has reported on the incident relating to Conservative councillor Stephen Gorys, who was sparked to write the e-mail after a council employee gave him a parking ticket while on council business.

His e-mail to the leader of Hart District Council said: “Has the management and staff gone completely blind and stupid?

“Some idiot parking attendant has given me a ticket OBVIOUSLY without looking properly.

“You need to seriously get a GRIP of this department before we councillors are forced to sort them out.

“Oh, by the way, if anyone takes offence at this then bloody good job too. I expect NO LESS than a grovelling apology and not some half-arsed letter basically blaming me.”

Unfortunately for Coun Gorys it would appear the e-mail has had the opposite effect and it is he who has had to issue an apology.

Coun Gorys apparently told The Gazette “I have made the apology and that’s it.”

His colleague Coun Sean Haffey, a member of the Standards Committee and like Coun Gorys, a Conservative, told The Gazette “It was clearly a matter that he needed to apologise for.

“He has done a huge amount of good work for the council and it is a real pity that he made this email but he has now apologised for it.”

NOTE: What isn’t clear is exactly how the e-mail was released by the council under the Freedom of Information Act as I would have thought that such comments would be covered by a Section 40 exemption. Any comments?