At the end of last month, the SKWAWKBOX revealed a racist joke shared by a Tory councillor and ex-mayor on her Facebook. As a result of the revelation, Cllr Rosemary Carroll was immediately suspended from the Conservative group on Pendle Council by Tory HQ.
Or at least, that’s what they said.
The SKWAWKBOX has received allegations by eyewitnesses that although Ms Carroll has supposedly been suspended from The Conservative Party pending further investigation, she is still sitting with the Conservative Group on the Council and has been seen travelling by car with Conservative councillors to meetings and events.
The SKWAWKBOX contacted CCHQ on Monday lunchtime about these allegations but the party has so far failed to respond in spite of reminders.
That’s not the end of the alleged misdeeds. Ms Carroll was the subject of a formal complaint by the Labour leader of the council and others about the Facebook post. Under the council’s rules, she had until 5pm last Friday to respond to the complaint – and according to the local council leader she failed to do so.
Council leader Mohammed Iqbal said,
I along with other individuals made a formal complaint to Pendle council that Cllr Carroll had broken the code of conduct for Councillors. She had until 5.00pm on Friday 7 July to contact the Council’s monitoring officer, Philip Mousdale and respond to the complaint.
She clearly has chosen to ignore this which further questions her position as a senior councillor and I would publicly call on her to resign from the council.
I have also today written to the Leader of the Conservative group , Joe Cooney calling upon him to publicly kick her out of the Conservative party and join with me in the call for her to go.
Cllr Carroll is making inexcusable points trying to justify her behaviour and it’s quite simply unacceptable.
It remains to be seen whether the Conservatives have enforced Councillor Carroll’s promised suspension and, if she is simply ignoring it, what action they will take. The party HQ’s response will be published when received.
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It is also known that she has been witnessed to refer to herself and Conservative councillors as “we” on numerous occasions during a sub-commitee meeting last week, only days after the suspension. This went unchallenged by Conservative councillors. (Suggesting standard collusion between colleagues prior to the meeting and contrary to their own rules on suspension https://www.macclesfieldconservatives.org.uk/sites/www.macclesfieldconservatives.org.uk/files/2017-03/Guidelines%20for%20Conservative%20Associations%20Undertaking%20the%20Suspension%20or%20Expulsion%20of%20a%20Member%20of%20The%20Conservative%20Party_0.pdf – last paragraph, page 5.) Which gives the impression that she, the local Conservative group and Pendle Conservative association are paying nothing but lip service to the suspension. (Your source may be able to confirm this, if not I can.)
PENDLE HISTORY MAYBE REPEATING ITSELF JUDGING BY THE WAY SHE DOESN’T GIVE A TOSS!