A Hadleigh town councillor who has tested positive for Covid-19 has made an emotional statement to full council after being cleared of any wrongdoing following a year-long investigation into a complaint made against her and a fellow member.

Cllr Angela Gregg appeared to be fighting back tears as she outlined the stress and 'months of hell' she and her family had undergone following a number of Code of Conduct complaints made by fellow councillors and former Town Council staff members against her - with NONE being upheld.

She thanked those who gave evidence of her behalf and the members of the public who supplied an unedited recording of the meeting that sparked a complaint, to the monitoring officer and subsequent independent investigation panel, which found no wrongdoing by Cllr Gregg and Cllr Knock.

Although she was interrupted and talked over by the chairman Cllr Frank Minns and had her mic muted on his orders, during her speech last night, Cllr Gregg insisted she should be allowed to continue as she had waited two years to speak, and as she had tested positive with Covid-19 and had other underlying medical conditions, she may never get the opportunity to speak out again.

In her prepared statement (which can be found in full below) Cllr Gregg revealed she had been subjected to 17 code of conduct complaints into years, but none had been upheld and described the financial cost, estimated at £1,500, and monitoring officers time as 'shameful'.

Even though the agenda item stated the council were to note the statements being read out, Cllr Minns told Cllr Gregg and Cllr Knock at various at points they could not carry on reading parts of their individual statements as 'it was not on the agenda'.

Cllr Gregg pleaded with Cllr Minns saying: "I have waited nearly two years to make this statement I would like you to give me the opportunity to finish today as I'm currently suffering from Covd-19 and this may be my very last chance to inform the public and this council how I have been treated over the past two years."

Cllr Minns finally relented saying it was a 'concession' as she had revealed her positive Covid test to council and was sorry the issue was causing her so much distress.

Cllr Knock thanked the monitoring officer of clearing him from the complaint first issued in October 2019 and revealed there had been 23 code of conduct complaints against councillors since the May 2019 election, with 22 not upheld, and the only one which was upheld, was brought by Cllr Minns against Cllr Knock for speaking over him during a debate.

Cllr Knock last night questioned Cllr Minns's silence in regards to comments made by fellow councillors last week and said: "You don't seem concerned about statements from councillors saying other councillors should be shot, or disclosure of prejudice."

He also expressed his frustration at the lack of evidence provided when code of complaints were made against them and then withdrawn, wasting people's time and public money.

Both councillors pointed to the recommendations made by the independent panel that ALL town councillors received training and and better procedures were put in the place by an independent consultant, nothing had been actioned despite the council being in possession of the report since last October.

Angela Gregg statement in full:

My statement regarding a decision on a potentially serious Code of Conduct against myself and Cllr. Knock will be addressed shortly but I'd like to give a brief overview why this statement is necessary. Some may look at this statement as emotive and I'm looking for sympathy but I am not, I am saying it in my own words and it's taken 2 years to say what how I feel.

It was made aware to the recruiters of Hadleigh Together that the reason I wanted to join the council & become a Town Councillor was purely to arrange and give Hadleigh some events to enjoy as for the past 2 years nothing had happened including a Christmas light up event. In August, just 3 months after being elected I listened to the public and decided to start to arrange a Christmas Light Up event. Despite many attempts to get it on the Council Agenda to be approved and a budget agreed, it took until 4th Oct 2019, three months, for this to happen. A working group was set up to include at least 3 town councillors and members of the public. Cllr Knock, Beggerow and Talbot were representing the town council along with me and members of the public. Within just 3 weeks of being approved a code of conduct was submitted to the Monitoring Office against Cllr Knock and me, but not Cllr Beggerow or Talbot? A member of the working group & a member of the staff submitted the CoC complaint.

I welcome the Monitoring Officer's findings. After a long investigation, the Monitoring Officer found that in regard to these complaints there were no breaches of the code of conduct.

The complaints against me and Cllr Knock concerned allegations of bullying and of financial mismanagement of the Hadleigh Town Council Christmas Event of December 2019.

There were in fact two very similar complaints, both submitted from within the Council. The Monitoring Officer treated the two complaints as one.

I should say that the complaints against Cllr Knock were dismissed by the Monitoring Office several months ago and so the final report only addresses the allegations against me. However, Cllr Knock felt it was not appropriate to comment until the allegations against me had been adjudicated on.

I have not felt able to comment on the allegations until the Monitoring Office had completed their investigation and reached a judgement.

It was a year from the complaints being made to the final result. The process was intense and stressful.

The Monitoring Office may have felt pressure to turn over every stone in an attempt to find possible wrongdoing. Indeed, the investigation looked into things that were not part of the original allegations.

It often felt like we were the subjects of a fishing trip.

The Monitoring Office did not share all the details of the complaints with us until very late in the process. For a long time details were held back, but from the start pressure was put on us to 'explain ourselves', and we were warned that the matter may be taken to the police.

Defending ourselves under these circumstances took a lot of time and effort, and was very stressful.

The stress and anxiety was made worse because the complaint was publicized online by one of the complainants. Because the complaint was under investigation, neither Cllr Knock nor I felt we could comment on those public allegations.

After several months, the Monitoring Office engaged an independent firm of local government investigators to carry out a thorough investigation and report back. They took input from the complainants, witnesses, myself and others, recorded interviews, and reviewed a lot of documentation including emails, minutes, video and social media posts.

I am grateful to most of those councillors and ex-councillors who provided statements to the investigators. I am thankful that a key Council meeting was recorded by a member of the public; the Monitoring Office and the independent investigator were able to review that recording complete and unedited. I am grateful to the other witnesses who provided statements.

The evidence was such that the independent investigator and the Monitoring Office concluded that I did not breach the code of conduct. The complaints were not upheld.

This is a great relief to me and my family. However, I believe the way the complaint was handled, the length of time it took to adjudicate, and the public disparagement that has gone on in the meantime, all made the level of stress and anxiety suffered far greater than it should have been. It has been 12 months of hell.

The cost to all involved, both financial and emotional, could have been avoided by more dialogue and better processes within the Council.

I am disappointed that each of the two complainants felt it appropriate to submit a complaint, but that was their decision and their right.

I am told the cost of the investigation was £1500. To my mind that is a shameful waste of money.

There is, however, some good that may come of this:

In his report to the Monitoring Officer, the independent investigator not only concluded there was no breach of the code of conduct, but also took the unusual step of making recommendations to the Council as a whole to improve how it functions. These recommendations include the appointment of an independent consultant to review Hadleigh Town Council's processes and procedures, and training and mentoring for both councillors and officers.

The Monitoring Officer tells me their recommendations were shared with the acting Town Council Manager in October 2020. Those recommendations have not so far been presented to the Council for consideration. I hope the Council gets an opportunity to review and adopt all the recommendations in the report.

What is ironic is that the Christmas Light up was a total success and approx 1200 people from Hadleigh attended. The craft stall holders all had very good sales. We came in well under the budget that the Council set us. So where was the reason to put a CoC in?

There have been approximately 17 CoC complaints at the last count submitted to the Monitoring Office since we took office. More than the total of CoC by all other councils. These were submitted mainly from councillors and staff and against Cllr.Knock and myself and not one, not one, of those have been upheld. How much work and total cost and a waste of the Monitoring Officers time. Another indication that training is certainly needed within this council to understand what constitutes a Code of Conduct and suggesting that by including all councillors in an email is an act of bullying is ludicrous. What happened to openness and transparency as Hadleigh Together campaigned for.

I would like to address another matter that does concern my role as a councillor and has given myself, my family & colleagues at the Foodbank a great deal of Stress and Anxiety which was not deserved. The reason I'd like to address this now is because the former member of the Foodbank wrote a very defamatory post on social media with accusations that were not submitted or backed up with any evidence. This person is still telling members of the public what he believes is right and he recently asked a fellow councillor to put a question in the public forum here tonight to try to humiliate me once again as a Councillor. This person was asked to put it in writing but it didn't come forward. My role within the Foodbank is totally separate from my role as a Town Councillor as is my personal life separate. I do agree if you become a councillor your life is in the public eye, but as with what happened to John Ward recently there are boundaries and sometimes these get crossed and I feel I too have been violated without just cause. The Foodbank continues to support approx 90 families a week, we have a total of 25 very committed loyal volunteers and now we are an established Charity there are 5 Trustees who overlook and manage the charity business. An achievement I am very proud of and one that I built without any support from the former Foodbank member.

In August the Foodbank gave Hadleigh a Film and Music event which was also a success and will be repeated if Covid allows again this year.

We created this year's only Christmas event in Hadleigh. Santa distributing presents around the town to bring some joy and jubilance to the children, but even this was reported 1 hour before we were due to set off by an ex member of the Foodbank to try to stop it. The Police were informed and found it was a very well controlled event and saw no reason to stop it, even waving to Santa on their way past.

I have proven that my reasons for joining the council has been actioned and achieved and I carry that on through the Foodbank.

Both my role as head of the Foodbank and a Town Councillor are totally voluntary. I decided not to sit and do nothing, when, due to my health conditions, I was advised to stop working full time.

I am a character who is not afraid of say how they feel. I ask questions if policies or procedures are not being followed correctly and that is allowed and expected being in council with potentially 15 other different opinions to consider. It's not about being argumentative or difficult. I don't vote with the majority, I vote what I believe and as an independent.

So, as I started this statement I will end it, I joined this council to create events for Hadleigh and I have shown I did what I set out to do.

As I sit here addressing you all tonight I tested positive for Covid 19 this week, which is a very scary situation to be in. I can only think that I contracted this awful virus from continuing my severely limited duties to support Hadleigh and those in need as the demand for the Foodbank services grows daily. Some may say that was my choice to carry on knowing the risks, but all our volunteers put themselves at risk, everyone is at risk, and I found it difficult to allow them to risk both theirs and their families lives if I didn't carry on and show selfless true leadership. I can only think of 2 outings that I have done within the last 2 weeks and I wore full PPE constantly but this shows how rapidly and randomly this virus can spread. I urge Hadleigh now, stay at home, no one is immune.

Finally, and I thank you for listening to me tonight, I am going to ask publically that the former member of the Foodbank stop this constant harassment and bullying and continues with their own agenda and moves on, as has the Hadleigh Foodbank Charity.

I am now asking the Councillors to start to listen to the advice of some experienced Councillors on policy and procedure and who have had much more training than most in this room, as it's about time the agenda items that are still outstanding after 2 years are investigated and addressed, and that the recommendations from the report of the Investigating Officer of the Code of Conduct complaint is actioned forthwith.