Monday, December 01, 2008

Liberal-Democrat Councillor found guilty of Electoral Offence today

Councillor Steve Hurst who represents Wavertree ward on Liverpool City Council has today been found guilty of an election offence.

I believe the charge was of distributing a leaflet which did not bear an imprint. Councillor Steve Hurst was found putting this leaflet through letter boxes. It was not a LibDem leaflet, it was put out in the name of a minor socialist party in the Belle Vale ward but without their knowledge or input. It carried highly personal and critical attacks on a Labour councillor and her husband, a fireman. (Councillor Steve Hurst also works for the fire service and was critical of his actions during a strike.)

Councillor Steve Hurst, who was the LibDem Chief Whip at the time of the offence (April or May 2007) is now the Executive Member for Corporate Services on Liverpool City Council.

I understand that he was fined £500 with £750 costs.

Representatives of the Fire Service and of the Standards Board were present in court for the 3 day hearing. I would expect this story to be carried in the Liverpool Daily Post and the Liverpool Echo tomorrow.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

lovely party the lib dems, if only the voters knew what Labour and Tory activists up and down the country have known, and worked against, for years...

scouseboy said...

the chickens are coming home to roost!! Bradley and Storey hopefully will be next to get their come uppance very soon!!

Anonymous said...

Pot, kettle, black cllr Baldock! How dare you and your ilk make comments regarding untrue leaflet material? It's on;y a month since three of your labour group colleagues were caught on camera delivering a dispicable piece of fiction against my colleague in Croxteth ward. This also had no imprint, contact details and was misleading to say the least (it was made to look as if it had been produced by local residents and had no mention of the Labour Party). I don't think you and yours are in a position to talk...do you?

Louise Baldock said...

I am not sure I did pass comment per se, I merely reported the facts.

I do have my suspicions as to who you are by the way, as you leave regular messages from this same IP address about Councillor Bailey that I never publish. They continue to make nasty personal insinuations in reference to Councillor Bailey. These comments would see you in court yourself if I could ever prove your identity, whoever you are. Actually I might do that some time, you would not be the first.

Perhaps this is why you dont think what Councillor Hurst has done is noteworthy, because you have done and continue to do the same yourself.

I think of the photo with the policeman's hat.

Such personal bitterness does you no credit and cannot possibly help your blood pressure either.

All Labour Party election publications have imprints, unless we have cocked up, which does sometimes happen. I got an imprint wrong on Tim Beaumont's posters earlier this year and had to do them again.

Even if we put out local newsletters which dont make direct reference to the Labour Party they always have LP imprints on. So it either genuinely was not one of ours or else you have not looked properly. Or it was not during an election, therefore not election material therefore outside the law.

And if incidentally you are referring to the leaflet with the extracts from the 2006 Labour Party newsletter for Croxteth when Nadia was our candidate, I can assure you we have an original copy and the extracts are genuine.