A SENIOR Halesowen councillor has been cleared of charges of breaching the members’ code of conduct by acting in a manner that could bring his office or authority into disrepute following an incident of misidentification.

It was alleged that Councillor Alan Taylor told Dudley Council’s school governance team that an article in the News concerning a woman named Claire Hackett who had been given a suspended prison sentence, was the same Claire Hackett who was a staff governor at Olive Hill Primary School.

Following the referral, the assistant director of children’s services Dave Perrett sent Mrs Hackett, a teaching assistant at the school, a letter disqualifying her from holding office as a school governor.

Mrs Hackett, who was not the same woman who had been convicted of benefit fraud, was stunned to receive the letter last July, as she had not been asked if she was the same person.

At yesterday's hearing before Dudley Council’s standards committee, investigating officer Helen Kidd said the governor services officer had claimed Cllr Taylor confirmed in a second telephone conversation the following day - July 21 - that he was “very sure” it was the same Claire Hackett. The disqualification letter was dated July 22.

But Cllr Taylor, who had retired as an Olive Hill governor shortly before making the referral, insisted he had only confirmed what he had said in the first conversation which was that headteacher Tess Jordan thought it could be the same person.

Ms Kidd concluded : “On balance, I prefer Cllr Taylor’s version.”

In finding that the Halesowen South Conservative councillor did not breach the code of conduct Chairman of the hearing, The Bishop of Dudley, the Rt Rev David Walker, said it was Cllr Taylor’s public duty to whistle blow if there were concerns that something was amiss, so long as he was not acting maliciously, which he was not.

But he added: “Everybody is pretty shocked at what happened to you (Mrs Hackett). It is appalling that without your identification being verified they should have disqualified you from a governing body. These are matters that can and should be taken up in other places.”

After the hearing, Mrs Hackett revealed she was forced to wait several agonising weeks for a fresh Criminal Records Bureau check to be carried out on her before Dudley Council would believe she was not the same person as in the newspaper article.

She was finally re-instated as staff governor at Olive Hill, but has been off work with stress since the incident and is currently waiting the outcome of a wide-reaching council investigation into union claims of mis-management at the school and is considering what further action she may be able to take.

In a statement, Cllr Taylor said: “It is clear that I acted properly throughout and have done the best that I can to represent my constituents and the wider public in Dudley.”