HELP Cllr Bryan Ellis is facing an uncertain future tonight as a growing number of figures are calling for him to resign from the council.
He chaired the council committee that has admitted having spent over £50,000 on lawyers so as to avoid paying staff.
The revelations are damning as the 6 female staff revealed that Cllr Ellis and others refused their offers to go for arbitration and go to ACAS.
Instead the council chose to set the metaphorical dogs on the women and hired a barrister who describes himself as a 'rotweiller in court'.
Cllr Ellis who was chairman of the council's policy and resources committee accepted a recommendation in February from Cllr George Ritchie (who is a solicitor for British Telecom) that they should pursue the women if they lost for all costs.
The judge of course ruled that the women were totally justified in their claim and noted that they had been verbally abused by HELP members and had had sticks waved at them and the women were often reduced to tears by these tactics.
The former mayor, Philip Ross, suggested in an earlier letter that Cllrs Ritchie and Ellis should do the decent thing and pay the costs themselves instead of making the people of Letchworth pay. The former staff have suggested that the HELP groups actions were political motivated in a letter to the Comet.
One of the women has called on Cllr Ellis to resign, and has suggested that his actions are probably incompatible with his role for his day job. This is echoed by members of the previous council.
The clock is ticking, and Cllr Ellis, who has absented himself from recent council meetings, may be the first HELP casualty from the HELPgate crisis.
We think he should do the decent thing — accept responsibility for his actions, and go.
He chaired the council committee that has admitted having spent over £50,000 on lawyers so as to avoid paying staff.
The revelations are damning as the 6 female staff revealed that Cllr Ellis and others refused their offers to go for arbitration and go to ACAS.
Instead the council chose to set the metaphorical dogs on the women and hired a barrister who describes himself as a 'rotweiller in court'.
Cllr Ellis who was chairman of the council's policy and resources committee accepted a recommendation in February from Cllr George Ritchie (who is a solicitor for British Telecom) that they should pursue the women if they lost for all costs.
The judge of course ruled that the women were totally justified in their claim and noted that they had been verbally abused by HELP members and had had sticks waved at them and the women were often reduced to tears by these tactics.
The former mayor, Philip Ross, suggested in an earlier letter that Cllrs Ritchie and Ellis should do the decent thing and pay the costs themselves instead of making the people of Letchworth pay. The former staff have suggested that the HELP groups actions were political motivated in a letter to the Comet.
One of the women has called on Cllr Ellis to resign, and has suggested that his actions are probably incompatible with his role for his day job. This is echoed by members of the previous council.
The clock is ticking, and Cllr Ellis, who has absented himself from recent council meetings, may be the first HELP casualty from the HELPgate crisis.
We think he should do the decent thing — accept responsibility for his actions, and go.
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