‘Brass-necked’ Stirling councillor’s bullying ban lifted early

A Stirling councillor previously suspended for bullying has had his final punishment rescinded early.

A majority of councillors voted to remove Labour’s Danny Gibson’s ban from taking on external appointments during the lifetime of the current council.

In June 2023, councillor Gibson was found to have breached the councillors’ code of conduct for behaving disrespectfully towards council officers and for having bullied a senior council officer between 2018 and 2019, while deputy council leader.

The Stirling North councillor was then suspended completely for five months and banned from representing Stirling Council on any outside bodies for the duration of the current council.

When introducing the motion to end this ban early, Labour councillor and council leader Margaret Brisley said: “It’s coming up 18 months now, so I think it’s time for that to happen.”

In response, laughter and a comment of “shameless” could be heard in the council chamber.

All Labour and Conservative councillors present at the October 10 meeting voted in support of rescinding Councillor Gibson’s ban. All SNP members and independent councillor Alasdair MacPherson voted against.

The result was 11 votes in favour and seven against.

‘Disrespectful motion to this council’

Ahead of the vote, Councillor Gerry McLaughlan of the SNP argued that since the council as a whole had decided to prohibit Councillor Gibson from external appointments “for the duration of council”, the agreed timeframe should be upheld.

Councillor McLaughlan said: “To be fair to our Tory colleagues, that is the one time, definitely, when they came on board and backed the moral case behind that.

“They understood that it wasn’t viable, unfortunately, for Danny – a convicted bully in the eyes of the Standards Commission – to represent this council on external bodies.

“We discussed that at a special council meeting, and as councillors, we agreed it sent the wrong message to everybody. Our staff. Because remember what he was convicted of – it was bullying staff.

“People talk about disrespect all the time – this is a disrespectful motion to this council.

“It was a ban for the lifetime of the council. Eighteen months isn’t the lifetime of the council. You don’t get off for good behaviour.”

Bully councillor says ‘it’s time to move on’

Defending himself, Mr Gibson brought up Mr MacPherson’s 2014 council suspension, which was given for aggressive behaviour towards members of the public.

“One heck of a glass house, as usual, that Councillor MacPherson throws stones from,” said Mr Gibson.

“Or, frankly, anyone in the SNP. Because when it came time after that, it was time to move on.

“You can keep obsessing with the politically-motivated vendettas to your hearts’ content. It’s done. It is time to move on.”

In response, Mr MacPherson, who was an SNP councillor at the time of his suspension, clarified that he resigned from all committees after his council ban.

Addressing councillors Gibson and Brisley by name, he said: “I served my time. I did not have the audacity to put my name forward to any committees or anything at that time because I thought I had to learn my lesson.

“So, I’ll take no lectures from any of you two, that’s all I’m going to say.”

‘You’ve got to admire Councillor Gibson for his brass neck’

Councillor McLaughlan added: “You’ve got to admire Councillor Gibson for his brass neck.

“It’s Councillor Gibson who’s opening this back up again. This was the settled will of this council.”

Earlier this month, SNP councillors called for a special meeting with the aim of removing Councillor Gibson as convenor of Stirling Council’s Children and Young People Committee.

However, their arguments were dismissed as “mischief making” by Councillor Brisley, who defeated the motion thanks to an amendment.

In the same meeting, Councillor Gibson’s recent appointment as chair of a short-life working group looking into violence, aggression and bullying in schools was described as a “sick joke” by opposition councillors.

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