Leader 'provoked pile-on'

A COUNCIL leader has been made the subject of a code of conduct complaint after an exchange on Facebook.

- By STUART ARNOLD

Alec Brown, the leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council, is accused of mocking former councillor Neil Baldwin and inviting ridicule of him.

Labour's Cllr Brown clashed with Mr Baldwin, a former independent who lost his seat in 2023, over repairs to the boating lake at Coatham which has been leaking water, a drawn-out saga which has yet to be resolved.

Mr Baldwin highlighted council cabinet papers which showed £30,000 had been spent on security measures with a further £22,000 being paid to a specialist drainage company. He described himself as not a councillor, just an interested resident.

Cllr Brown responded by stating Mr Baldwin was “playing politics”, adding: “The ‘interested resident’ was part of the last council [administration] who allowed it to get into this mess.”

He went on to describe current efforts to bring the historic structure back into full public use, while suggesting the previous administration had neglected to make adequate repairs.

A code of conduct complaint from a resident seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) and sent to council monitoring officer Steve Newton said: