Councillor reprimanded over ‘speak English’ comments to call handler

Nicholas Thomas Local Democracy Reporter

A Newport councillor who told a call handler to “speak English” has been reprimanded and must complete extra training.

Independent councillor Janet Cleverly made the comments when she was reporting a fly-tipping incident to the local authority.

An ombudsman’s investigation described the Bettws ward councillor’s comments as “derogatory and humiliating”, and “not what is expected of an elected member”.

At a Newport City Council standards committee hearing, held on Thursday April 23, Cllr Cleverly apologised and said she was “mortified” by her actions.

During the phone conversation, the call handler had attempted to tell the councillor about “disruptive sounds” over the line, and asked her to repeat certain information.

According to the ombudsman’s report, Cllr Cleverly then interrupted the call handler and said: “I’m sorry, can I speak to somebody who’s speaking English?”

A few minutes later, the call handler was clarifying details when Cllr Cleverly said: “Sorry? I can’t understand anything you’re saying. Speak English!”

Later that day – August 9, 2024 – Cllr Cleverly emailed the cabinet member responsible for environmental matters.

In her email, she said: “I phoned in a complaint about fly tipping this morning and the person I spoke to, could not speak English properly, why would you have someone manning a call centre, I am all for equal opportunity’s (sic) but this person took all my information wrong after I had to repeat everything 3-4 times and spell everything lots of times.”

A manager in the customer services team listened to the recorded call, and flagged concerns about the councillor’s “unnecessary” tone.

The council’s monitoring officer at the time then told Cllr Cleverly he would be investigating the matter.

He said he considered the call handler’s English to be fluent, and the councillor’s comments to be “consciously or otherwise, racially motivated” and “discriminatory”.

According to the ombudsman’s report, the call handler was “very emotional and upset” about the incident, but went on to withdraw from the investigation.

Cllr Cleverly later told the ombudsman’s office she had “worked in BME communities” – (Black and Minority Ethnic) – in her career as a youth and community worker, and had “lots of BME friends”.

She described the phone call as a “really bad line” and said she apologised if she had upset the call handler – adding “it was not my intention”.

The ombudsman found the councillor had previously completed training on the local authority’s code of conduct, and sessions on equalities and equal opportunities.

Cllr Cleverly’s comments on the phone call were “unwarranted, derogatory and demeaning” – while the call handler had been “polite and friendly”, and using “proficient” English, the ombudsman found.

The apology was to be “welcomed” but the council’s standards committee should judge whether Cllr Cleverly had breached the code of conduct.

Parts of the committee hearing took place in private to protect the identity of the call handler, who was not present.

“I was absolutely mortified by my actions that day,” Cllr Cleverly told the panel, adding she had found it difficult to hear the call handler “at all”.

Cllr Kevin Whitehead, who leads the Bettws ward’s independents, said the phone call showed a “lack of etiquette” from his colleague but challenged any suggestion there was a racial element to the matter.

“I don’t think there was an intent or anything – [it was] poor etiquette and poor form,” he said.

He added Cllr Cleverly – who had shown “a lot of contrition” – had a long career helping young people and the Bettws community, and had received messages of support from people of diverse backgrounds.

The committee found Cllr Cleverly had breached three areas of the council’s code for members – relating to equality, respect and consideration of others, and disreputable conduct.

Chairman Andrew Mitchell said the “extremely concerned” panel had considered a suspension, but agreed instead to censure Cllr Cleverly and require her to promptly complete further training.

The council’s deputy monitoring officer had earlier explained a censure is “a formal reprimand”.