AN elected Herefordshire representative claims county authorities are ‘hounding’ him after he picked up a third official conduct rap.

Ledbury town councillor Ewen Sinclair was formally rebuked by a Herefordshire Council standards panel earlier this month, which he did not attend, arising from a complaint by town resident David Thomas.

Mr Thomas previously lived opposite the town’s Barn music venue, noise from which he claimed had disrupted his sleep and affected his mental health. Mr Sinclair had backed the venue’s licensing bid.

Then when passing by Mr Thomas’ shop in the town last September, Cllr Sinclair suggested to fellow councillor Tony Bradford, in Mr Thomas’ hearing, that they go for a drink at the Barn.

In his account of the incident to local police, Cllr Sinclair said Mr Thomas reacted with an ‘unbelievable outburst’ of swearing and threatening behaviour, to which he and Cllr Bradford had not responded.

But in an email account of the incident sent the next day to 17 recipients, Cllr Sinclair wrote: “Winding people up is fun, I got a spectacular bite on Tuesday.”

Cllr Sinclair now says this was sent from and to private email accounts and therefore did not constitute council business.

Mr Thomas and his brother Jonathan also made official complaints over the incident.

Following an official investigation into these, Herefordshire Council’s standards panel called for Cllr Sinclair to be removed from any town council committees and outside appointments for the rest of his term of office, to attend code of conduct training, and to provide a written apology to Mr Thomas over the September incident.

It also called on Ledbury Town Council to publish and endorse these measures – which it is due to consider doing this Thursday.