"Ticket heaven": Robert Wann censured by Leicester standards committee

The former Lord Mayor of Leicester Robert Wann has censured by the city council's standards committee, reports the Leicester Mercury.

It found that the Labour councillor had brought his position as a councillor into disrepute by getting senior officers at the authority to cancel parking fines.

And Wann's reaction?

"It's a complete joke. It should never have gone ahead without me there. I have been denied the right to have my say. 

"If I had been there it would have been a very different outcome but I couldn't put my case. It's pathetic."

According to the BBC report he will be appealing against the finding.

The Mercury quotes the committee's independent investigator Jon Wigmore:

"I think he applied pressure on senior officers. There was a degree of familiarity that approached friendship. 

"He didn't think he needed to shout or thump the table. I think he just needed to turn up, put the ticket on the table and walk out of the room. 

"He had given the tickets to senior officers and, in his words, expected them to go to ticket heaven."

You may very well think that Wann has got what he deserves, but do not forget that his case was referred to the standards committee by the city's elected mayor Sir Peter Soulsby after the two fell out.

Whether this was a case of Soulsby fearlessly doing what was right, or of his settling old scores, I could not possibly comment. But he does have form.