Avon Fire Authority chair breached conduct code
Cllr Ben Nutland has since resigned from the AFA.
A councillor who was head of Avon Fire Authority (AFA) has been ordered to undergo training in equalities and professional boundaries after calling a female employee “stunning” and following her into a hotel room at an awards night.
Cllr Ben Nutland was found to have breached South Gloucestershire Council’s member code of conduct by a standards sub-committee.
The decision in November follows a similar ruling by an AFA panel in the summer.
But Cllr Nutland, who was a Lib Dem councillor for Yate North – now an independent – and the fire authority’s chairman at the time of the incident in Bristol city centre in November 2024, has hit back, saying he was prevented from presenting his evidence at the South Gloucestershire hearing.
He has since resigned from the AFA.
A decision notice of the panel, which met behind closed doors, said he “acted in a manner which was offensive and humiliating toward Employee 1 and caused her to be very uncomfortable” by asking her to “go upstairs” with him and then taking off his shoes and jacket and getting onto her bed.
The report said the woman asked him to leave and that “he did so without making any physical contact with her”.
But it said Cllr Nutland also then tried twice to get another female member of Avon Fire & Rescue Service staff to dance with him “despite being clearly told she did not want to”.
The report said: “Cllr Nutland conducted himself in a way that was disrespectful to Employee 1.
“Cllr Nutland was, at the time, Chair of the Fire Authority, a position of leadership and the Sub-Committee considered there to be an imbalance of power in the relationship between himself and Employee 1, with such conduct being both unreasonable and entirely inappropriate from a Member to an officer.
“The Sub-Committee considered the conduct towards Employee 1 to demonstrate a lack of respect for and consideration of Employee 1’s feelings.
“In all the circumstances, the Sub-Committee considered that Cllr Nutland’s conduct demonstrated a lack of respect towards Employee 1.
“The Sub-Committee was satisfied that Cllr Nutland’s conduct towards Employee 1 failed to demonstrate selflessness and leadership, and that his actions were motivated by his own private interest and therefore indicative of bringing his role into disrepute by reducing the standing of his role.”
It said the councillor’s behaviour to Employee 2 in seeking to dance with her was “unwanted and made her feel uncomfortable”.
In an unrelated complaint, the sub-committee found Cllr Nutland also breached Yate Town Council’s code of conduct, although it cleared him of five of six allegations.
The report said that while on a shift in his profession as a barman in August 2023, he offered a customer – a town council employee – a drink which was accepted and commented on her physical appearance as she was dressed as a cowgirl on a hen party.
Although the panel concluded he was acting in a private capacity and therefore there was no breach of the code, it found that by phoning the council two days later to ask when she was next on duty so he could return a buckle from her fancy dress hat, and then going to meet her in the public area of the authority’s offices, that he did break the rules.
The report said Cllr Nutland asked her for her personal phone number “in pursuit of a personal relationship” but that she declined to provide it stating “I am going to say no because of the whole councillor/officer thing”.
“Cllr Nutland accepted this. In making the telephone call to the Yate Town Council office on August 21, 2023, Cllr Nutland was acting as a councillor in seeking and gaining information about the working practice of a member of Yate Town Council staff.
“In attending the Yate Town Council offices on August 22, 2023, Cllr Nutland was acting in his official capacity throughout the visit.
“The Yate Town Council Code of Conduct was therefore engaged.
“The Sub-Committee considered that in making a telephone call to the Town Council offices during working hours to establish when X, a member of Town Council staff, would next be working in attendance at the Yate Town Council offices, Cllr Nutland as the member of staff’s quasi employer, was acting in his official capacity as a Yate Town Council councillor rather than as Ben Nutland the barman.
“While Cllr Nutland was clear that subjectively he attended the office ‘in his personal capacity, not as a councillor, and believed that was clear at the time’ he accepted that ‘there may possibly have been a misunderstanding’ about this for which he offers a ‘sincere apology’.”
Asked to comment, the councillor said of the AFA/South Gloucestershire Council ruling: “I note the panel’s decision.
“At the hearing, I was prevented from presenting any evidence regarding the case.”
On the Yate Town Council decision he said: “The complaint was submitted over 15 months after the event in question.
“The Council conducted a review lasting 11 months.
“Importantly, an expert independent investigator appointed by the council examining all relevant evidence found no breaches of the Code of Conduct.
“I was cleared on five of the six accusations with only a minor breach found.
“I will complete the recommended training once the council organises it.”