Unanimous support for Tory motion over Marvin Rees deleted emails

A Tory motion to improve how Bristol City Council keeps documents about key decisions, after it emerged Marvin Rees ’s emails were deleted 30 days after leaving office, received unanimous cross-party support. The controversy was sparked after local democracy activist Suzanne Audrey asked about a Freedom of Information request for details about the then-mayor’s meetings in March after the person who submitted it was told that this was not held by the authority because Rees’ “inbox and communications were shut down” just one month after his tenure ended.

But speaking during the motion debate at a full council meeting, Cllr John Goulandris (Conservative, Stoke Bishop) said the IT department would have ‘easy access’ to the information. He said: “Let’s stop pretending otherwise.

“To suggest to members of the public that the emails are not available is simply not true, and appears to be a flagrant attempt to circumvent national legislation. This behaviour damages the reputation of our city and is a stain on our civic character.

“To reject an access request simply because the email account is no longer active is utterly unacceptable and is in breach of the council’s statutory duty.” Cllr Goulandris said that when an employee left an organisation, their email account was switched off but that the emails did not disappear.

He said it was common in the private sector to need access to the historic emails of a former staff member, such as for customer order queries, and that the council would be no different. Cllr Toby Wells (Green, Knowle) told the meeting on Tuesday, December 10, that before he became a councillor, the authority often felt like an ‘impenetrable fortress’ when he tried to access information about decision-making.

He said the committee model that replaced the mayoral system in May provided the chance for this to change but that the council was still not getting it right. Cllr Tom Blenkinsop (Labour, Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston) said: “I agree a culture of openness and honesty will lend itself to better decision-making, better governance and better conduct from members – I’m all for it every step of the way.”

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But he said the focus in the motion on the previous Labour administration was ‘unpalatable’. Cllr Blenkinsop said: “There have been a number of rather interesting FOIs of Green Party and Conservative councillors as well, and there have been concerns around the transparency of the current administration with unanswered or poorly answered public questions, with £92million decisions taken behind closed doors.

“This is not one singular issue with one individual, and to suggest otherwise is being complacent. This is something where the council as a whole can do better.

“It’s a good and worthwhile motion. It’s a bit of a shame there has been some political sniping as part of it but the council should have very good data retention policies.”

Lib Dem group leader Cllr Jos Clark said: “We know the public’s faith in politics and politicians is at an all-time low. The bottom line is that we do not need to be in this mess of missed emails, slow responses to FOI requests or vague and incomplete answers to questions.

“Moving forward, it’s incumbent upon the leader of council to lead the way, rather than carry on the behaviour of the mayoral system where public perception was of a culture of secrecy and poor communication.” Speaking afterwards, Cllr Graham Morris (Conservative, Stockwood), who tabled the motion, said: “It was good to hear the various contributions made by our political opponents which I thought were made in a very positive and constructive way.

“I also found it heartening that there appeared to be a genuine desire and consensus in the need to improve the way that council responds to public enquiries and stores its data, particularly in relation to communications of key decision-makers. Confidence and trust in our public institutions really does depend on transparency and the ability to hold people in privileged positions of power to better account.

“No doubt, the council’s current policy retention practices are strictly legally compliant. However, the recent controversies around them now provide us with an opportunity to standardise how different document types are handled and held.

“We should aim to become a model in such things for other public bodies to follow. I now look forward to seeing the progress made in delivering on this unanimous call for change.”

Councillors voted 60-0 in favour of the motion, which will send the issue to the strategy & resources policy committee to consider how to implement a number of suggested reforms which aim to give greater accessibility and transparency of public records.