Former councillor paid £15K by woman who branded him a 'bully and misogynist'

A community group leader who complained that her local councillor was a ‘misogynist and a bully’ has formally apologised and paid £15,000 to him ‘as a mark of regret’ for making the claims. Sian Ellis-Thomas, who led the Friends of Redcatch Park group in Knowle, placed a pop-up post on the group’s website accepting there was ‘no basis’ for the statements she made back in June last year.

Bristol Live reported that the Friends of Redcatch Park group had formally made a complaint to Bristol City Council about the conduct of Gary Hopkins, who at the time was the local councillor for Knowle.

The complaint was later dismissed by Bristol City Council’s complaints procedures, who found the then councillor had broken no part of the councillor code of conduct. Mr Hopkins, a former Liberal Democrat councillor who left the Lib Dems and set up his own ‘Knowle Community Party’ in 2021, was defeated in May’s city council elections and is no longer a councillor.

At the time of the complaint, the leaders of the Friends of Redcatch Park were involved in a long-running row with Cllr Hopkins about a range of issues, including plans to charge for people to play tennis there, and over the plans for the Broadwalk Shopping Centre next door - Ms Ellis-Thomas was also a prominent member of the campaign group trying to stop the plans, while Cllr Hopkins was supporting the developers.

There were a series of rows about what the the Cllr Hopkins said in his monthly newsletter to subscribers in his ward, and in June, Ms Ellis-Thomas, through the Friends of Redcatch Park group, said she was ‘calling out’ his behaviour.

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At the time, Gary Hopkins described the complaint against him as a ‘crude smear’, and was later cleared by the council’s monitoring officers has having no case to answer.

Now, Ms Ellis-Thomas has made a payment to Mr Hopkins for making the complaint, in a legal action settled out of court. The post on the Friends of Redcatch Park group said: “I, Sian Ellis-Thomas, offer an apology for my statements and actions towards Gary Hopkins, who at the time was a long serving Cllr for the Knowle ward.

“I said that he was a bully and a misogynist and habitually misled local people. I accept that there was no basis for these statements and wish to apologise to Mr Hopkins and anyone else that may have been misled or upset by my remarks which were publicly made,” she said. “As a mark of my regret, I have agreed to make a payment to him of £15,000.”