“DEMOCRACY died in Bournemouth today, you might as well use a picture of a coffin in your paper.”

That was the reaction of Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Claire Smith upon hearing that no further action will be taken against former council leader Stephen MacLoughlin, despite his admission that he repeatedly viewed explicit pornography on his council-owned computer.

Her husband and fellow Lib Dem councillor Richard Smith immediately announced his resignation from the Standards Committee, calling the decision “a joke” and “a sham.”

Cllr Claire Smith added: “We will not be replacing him on the Standards Committee because we have no faith in the process anymore.

“The fact that we have seen unprecedented procedures come into play with this case just beggars belief.

“Members have been kept in the dark, none of us today saw any witness statements – well, if they want their secret club behind closed doors, let them get on with it. We’re not going to play their games.

“I am blinded by the whitewash that we have seen at the town hall today.”

And Independent group leader Cllr Anne Rey, who was one of the original members of the Standards Committee, also resigned in protest.

She said: “This has been an unprecedented complaint all the way through. The Standards Committee has totally been ignored right from the beginning when the complaint was made from IT to the chief executive Pam Donellan and monitoring officer Joy Postings.

“The Standards Committee has been totally ignored from that time right up until this week when the papers should have been released ahead of the hearing.

“This has brought the whole of the town down onto its knees. As far as I’m concerned I have got better things to do with my time.”

And there was condemnation too from resident Richard Godber, whose wife was one of the 15 or so staff escorted out of the town hall for circulating joke emails, including one about Viagra that contained an explicit image.

She suffered a nervous breakdown and eventually had her contract terminated.

“There’s one rule for us and one rule for them,” he said. “We haven’t got any faith in the system at all.

“This has just been a total waste of money, it must have cost them thousands. It’s sad that it has come to this but the credibility of the council has just gone into freefall.”

See the full Standards Board code of conduct by clicking the link below (PDF file)

Standards Board recommended Code of Conduct