A Reading councillor has apologised after calling a campaigner a ‘coward’ during a public meeting last year.

During an Audit & Governance committee meeting in September 2019, councillor Tony Page, deputy leader of Reading Borough Council (RBC), called a campaigner a “coward” and said he does not have the “guts” to stand for election.

Jason Collie – a local resident and Evening Standard journalist who was attending the meeting – accused Cllr Tony Page of bullying and sent a formal complaint to the council about his comments.

READ MORE: Official complaint after councillor Tony Page calls campaigner “coward”

An investigation has now been completed and ruled that Cllr Page should apologise to campaigner Colin Lee, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has revealed.

The deputy leader must also complete “additional training”.

Kate Andrews, the senior councillors’ secretary at RBC, said: “In rather unusual circumstances, Mr Collie made a complaint about an exchange between Cllr Page and another member of the public in September 2019.

“That member of the public did not raise a complaint at the time, nor did he subsequently contact the council about it.

“Notwithstanding that, the matter has been reviewed and an independent investigator has ruled that Cllr Page should apologise to the member of the public for what he said.

“Cllr Page has written to the member of the public to apologise for a regrettable lapse in making the comment at the time.

“As the correspondence is private between Cllr Page and the member of the public who did not raise a complaint, we are not able to provide copy correspondence or say anything more about it because of the need to maintain the protect the personal data of the person involved.

“The council has written to Mr Collie to inform him of the outcome of the complaint.”

The news comes after Reading Momentum claimed the council has a “culture of bullying”, which was denied by the council’s leader Jason Brock.

READ MORE: ‘No complaints’ – Council leader refutes Reading Momentum claims of  bullying

And last year, the council’s chief executive raised concern after a staff survey found one in ten staff felt they had been bullied.

READ MORE: ‘Sick to my stomach’ – Council chief executive alarmed at bullying levels

What happened?

At the Audit & Governance committee meeting, Mr Lee requested to meet with Jackie Yates, the council’s head of resources, to ask questions about the council’s auditing issues.

Cllr Page told him he should stand for election if he wants to meet with Ms Yates.

Mr Lee responded: “P*ss off” to which Mr Page said: “You haven’t got the guts to. Coward.”

Mr Collie, who was attending the meeting to hear about the council’s failure to answer Freedom of Information (FOI) requests on time, sent a formal complaint to the council about Cllr Page’s comments.

At the time, Cllr Page stood by his comment and said: “If Mr Lee wants to spend time with us, get elected. He has never stood for election.”

But an internal review, ratified by an independent person and RBC’s monitoring officer, found the deputy leader breached Section 6.1.2 of the Councillors Code of Conduct – ‘Do treat others with respect' – and should apologise to a member of the public

A council spokesman said the monitoring officer had concluded that, apart from apologising to Mr Lee and undertaking “some additional training”, no further action is required.