The significant cost to Merton Council of the investigation into Cllr Alambritis’ conduct could potentially have been spared if only the Leader of the Council had had the decency to own up from the start (‘Probe costs council £8k’, 25 May 2017).
It shouldn’t have taken the formal independent investigation for him to recognise the seriousness of his mistakes. Yet at every stage, he has simply tried to brush off the accusations, thereby bringing the council further into disrepute and costing it both time and money.
Only when forced to do so by the independent investigator’s findings did Cllr Alambritis finally apologise publicly for his conduct.
By misusing council resources in the way that he did in order to weaponise the vulnerable, Cllr Alambritis did in fact breach the Council’s Code of Conduct. This was confirmed following the recent Standards and General Purposes committee meeting.
The Leader of the Council has abused his position and taxpayer money to serve his own political goals. Now he has been caught out. It therefore seems only right that either he personally or else the local Labour Party should pay the costs of conducting this investigation.
Why should council taxpayers have to foot the bill yet again for Labour’s mismanagement and incompetence?
Yours faithfully
Cllr Oonagh Moulton
Leader of Merton Conservative Group