Sandwell Council leader cleared over 'vendetta' claims

Former deputy leader Mahboob Hussain alleged that Steve Eling had leaked information about him to a local blog site, saying: “This involves him disclosing information about confidential council business and personal matters about me and my family for political gain and to pursue a vendetta against me.”

The allegations were made in October 2017 and were due to be discussed at a meeting of ethics committee today.

At the time, Mr Hussain was under investigation regarding allegations first made in the Wragge report over the sale of council- owned land and parking tickets issued to members of his family.

He was later found to have breached the council’s code of conduct and stood down as a councillor in May.

Mr Hussain has consistently denied any wrongdoing and claimed he was a victim of a ‘political witch hunt’.

His allegation also claimed Mr Eling had disclosed confidential information about him during a Labour Party internal investigation.

The claims centred on a meeting Mr Eling and another former councillor, Richard Marshall, had with the author of a local blog site in 2016.

Following the meeting Mr Marshall passed a series of messages said to included abusive and derogatory remarks about Mr Hussian and also the council’s then Assistant Chief Executive, Melanie Dudley, to the blog site.

Mr Hussian alleged the information on himself was leaked with the knowledge of the council leader.

But the investigation found in the absence of any evidence beyond Mr Hussian’s claims, Mr Eling had not breached the council’s code of conduct for elected members.

Mr Eling said: “This misconceived complaint has been thoroughly examined by an independent investigator who concluded I had not breached the members’ code.”

Today's meeting was also due to hear the findings of separate investigations into five former and current councillors.

They include a separate probe into Mr Marshall, which concludes he failed to treat Mr Hussian and others with respect and therefore breached the code of conduct, and that his actions was likely to bring the authority into disrepute.

A further report into complaints brought by the council's former assistant chief executive Melanie Dudley against Mr Marshall also found he had not treated her with respect and that his conduct was also likely to bring the authority in to disrepute.

Following the allegations, Mr Marshall stood down from the council at May’s election.

Allegations against councillors' Ian Jones and Olwen Jones were also due to be examined.