Senior official faces hearing
A senior Shropshire County Council official will face a disciplinary hearing after telling staff how they could vote more than once in a web poll on the unitary authority proposals.
Paul Masterman has been suspended from his post as head of communications since January 16 while an inquiry was carried out.
Mr Masterman admitted that he had told staff in an e-mail how they could get around the block on the BBC Radio Shropshire poll on the county's bid for unitary status, but denied that he had told them how to vote.
His advice, which came to light in a leaked copy of his e-mail, led to the radio station suspending the online poll.
Today a spokesman for Shropshire County Council said: "The investigation into matters relating to Paul Masterman and an on-line poll on BBC Radio Shropshire's website has been completed.
"A disciplinary hearing will now be held, in accordance with the county council's personnel procedures. Paul Masterman is going into hospital in the next 12 days for major surgery. As a result the hearing will take place following his recovery."
In his e-mail Mr Masterman said there was a need to ensure that those who were keen to vote "yes" to unitary status did so and he gave technical details of how to bypass "cookies" - the block to prevent people voting more than once.
Mr Masterman became head of communications in January 2004 on a salary of £60,000 a year.
