Councillor cleared of Sunday drinking vote accusations 27/6/11
A Western Isles councillor has been cleared of any wrong doing over a controversial Sabbath drinks row.
The Public Standards Commissioner for Scotland threw out a raft of complaints against Point councillor Norman Macleod over allegations his position as an elder in the Free Church elder conflicted with his role on Western Isles Licensing Board.
It was alleged Mr Macleod, who is also the chairman of Northern Constabulary police board, was religiously biased by voting against a Sunday licence for Stornoway Golf Club.
Public Standards Commissioner Stuart Allan stressed Norman Macleod had not “inappropriately brought his religious faith to bear on the application.”
After an investigation, he concluded “councillor Norman Macleod had not contravened the Councillors’ Code of Conduct.”
Last year, Stornoway Golf Club was refused a Sunday daytime drinks license on health grounds on two separate occasions by a majority of the Western Isles Licensing Board.
In December, the club won a legal appeal and acting Sheriff Principal Charles N Stoddart issued a new licence allowing the clubhouse to open seven days.
Stornoway Golf Club sought the licence to sell alcohol with Sunday lunches and TV sports events.
Its lease with the community landlord Stornoway Trust forbids the playing golf on the Sabbath and the club wanted to boost its takings by the weekend bar trade.
The licensing panel, compromised entirely of island councillors, received objections over health concerns that the extra drinking hours could led to alcohol fuelled violence, criminal behaviour and risk domestic abuse and reduced family quality time.
Objectors pointed out that shut pubs on Sundays gives families with an alcoholic parent some sober relief on one day a week.
Public Standards Commissioner Stuart Allan determined that being a member or official of a church does not mean a conflict of interest nor disqualifies a councillor from making licensing board decisions.
His report says Mr Macleod “sought to take into account the views of his community, many of whom uphold a tradition of Sunday observance” but his concerns over the Sunday opening were related to statutory licensing objectives.
The watchdog highlighted that despite the complainant’s “perceptions rather than being backed by objective evidence,” Mr Macleod never made any religious or Sunday observance arguments against the golf club.
Mr Allan also dismissed accusations that Mr Macleod ignored verbal legal advice which suggested there were no “robust grounds” to refuse the Sunday licence.
Ironically, the licensing board chairman, who previously publicly slammed his colleagues for turning down the application, was himself criticised for not communicating the legal position “more persuasively” which could have avoid the golf club subsequently launching a successful legal appeal.
Mr Allan said: “Failure to accept the clerk’s advice was not in itself a breach of the law and was a decision of the board as a whole rather than [Mr Macleod] as an individual.”
He highlighted the complainant had mistakenly “cast a wide net and drawn an implication which was not supported by evidence“ by alleging Mr Macleod of bias when he suggested he would vote the same way again, depending on the available information, in a Gaelic interview on Radio nan Gaidheal.
The commissioner also point out that Councillor Macleod’s approval of other Sunday licences conflicted with claims he held a “literal interpretation of Biblical scripture and an extremist view of Sunday observance … as a member of The Free Church of Scotland.”