Shropshire Council defends equality training policy ahead of leader's course
Shropshire Council has defended its equality training policy after it was confirmed that leader Peter Nutting will be taking a course.
It comes after Councillor Nutting was criticised for comments when discussing Shrewsbury's Clive of India statue, when he said "all lives matter" in an interview stressing that he wanted the monument to remain.
The phrase is considered to diminish the message of the Black Lives Matter anti-racism campaign.
Following confirmation that the council leader would take diversity training, Labour councillor Kev Pardy criticised the authority over its policy, saying he hadn't been offered training since 2013 and colleagues had never been offered training.
However, Claire Porter, director of legal and democratic services, refuted his claims.
She said: “It’s simply not true for councillors to say that they haven’t been offered diversity training. All councillors are offered this training after each Shropshire Council election but attendance is generally poor.
"Three sessions were arranged after the 2013 election, and three after the 2017 election. We used to offer this training in mid-term too, but it was stopped due to the poor take-up.
“Since the Shropshire Council election in 2013, 38 councillors have attended diversity training, some of them more than once. It is the personal responsibility of each councillor whether they attend or not and we cannot force them to attend."
She added: “All councillors will be made aware of the online version of the training that is available to them, and encouraged to complete it, so that they are aware of recent and current developments. The leader has already said that he will do so.
“If councillors do feel strongly about this training we’re disappointed that they haven’t raised this with us before now and we encourage all councillors to raise their training needs with us direct.
“Our member development officer is always accessible and available to discuss any training needs and if councillors have any issues they know they can raise them at any time. Councillors also receive regular emails advising of forthcoming training and briefings.”
