COVENTRY’S former “Lewd Mayor” Andy Matchet has been instructed to sign a letter of apology to an ex-council equalities officer who lodged a complaint against him.
Last week a standards committee panel issued a 10-working day deadline on the already suspended Earlsdon councillor to sign a letter by Friday February 19.
Failure to do so could lead to further penalties by the standards committee.
The letter is one of the two sanctions that was imposed on the Conservative party member last November when the council standards sub-committee issued a three-month ban on him as councillor.
It ruled he had broken the code of conduct with an “inappropriate” conversation about sex at his own Lord Mayor’s Ball in 2008.
Cllr Matchet’s ban began on January 5 after he lost an appeal. But he is yet to agree to sign any apology letter ahead of his return to office in April.
He has also been suspended from the Tory party.
It comes after 27-year-old former equalities officer Laura Slegg complained about his alleged conversation with a 45-year-old charity chief executive Ms X, after the pair had danced “flirtily” and discussed sex, allegedly initiated by him.
Ms Slegg accepts she also took part in some of the conversation. She then went home after the talk and made notes about what had been discussed.
Ms X did not want to complain, but Ms Slegg provided the only evidence of the boozy chat with her notes.
Cllr Matchet had told the appeal tribunal he felt Ms Slegg had been prejudiced against him because of his age and sex.
The proposed letter was sent to Cllr Matchet’s solicitors, with a return date set for January 22.
But the office is yet to receive the letter, which will be passed onto Ms Slegg, and so a new date has been set.
Christine Forde, the council’s monitoring officer, told the standards committee: “Should Andy Matchet fail to provide the letter of apology, that could amount to a further breach of the member code of conduct and be the subject of investigation.”
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