David Whittingham banned from Fareham offices after 'appalling racist behaviour'

Fareham Borough Council has upheld a complaint made against Conservative Cllr David Whittingham by three council officers, who had accused him of saying he "did not want foreigners in his road".

Cllr Whittingham was also found to have imitated the sound of someone speaking in an Indian or Pakistani accent.

The council leader, Cllr Sean Woodward, described Cllr Whittingham's remarks and behaviour as "extremely distasteful and completely unprecedented".

Cllr Woodward has expelled Cllr Whittingham from the Conservative Group and removed him from all the committees of which he is a member.

He has also been banned from the civic offices for two months and kicked out of the Tory party.

Cllr Woodward said: "I am shocked at a Fareham Borough Councillor exhibiting such appalling racist behaviour to our officers who are not in a position to defend themselves.

"The officer was extremely upset and I am sorry that the officer and the officer's colleagues should have been subject to such language and behaviour from an elected councillor.

"We have a zero tolerance policy to such behaviour."

A report to the council's standards sub-committee said Cllr Whittingham was talking to an officer when he said he "did not want foreigners living in my road" and "did not want foreigners in his (housing) stock".

The report added: "Shortly afterwards he started talking in an accent that sounded like a person of Indian/Pakistani origin attempting to speak English.

"Cllr Whittingham responded that he recalled saying in a jocular manner 'what are you doing putting immigrants in my ward without my knowledge'?"

The report, which identifies the council employees only as officers A, B and C, added: "He denied making the statements about not wanting any foreigners in his road or his housing stock.

"He recalled that when asked by Officer C to clarify what he meant by foreigners, he repeated a telephone conversation he had recently with a representative of Vodafone.

"He imitated the Vodafone employee by using an accent that was meant to be Asian /Indian as he recounted the conversation."

The sub-committee concluded that Cllr Whittingham’s comments and behaviour were racist and caused offence and upset to the officers who witnessed this behaviour.

Cllr Whittingham was banned from the civic offices for two months, was told to send written apologies to each officer and undergo "appropriate" training.

Now Cllr Woodward has expelled Cllr Whittingham from the Conservative Group and removed him from all the committees of which he is a member. His Conservative Party membership is also forfeit.

Cllr Whittingham defended his actions in evidence submitted to the sub-committee.

He said he was collecting residents' signatures to support his application to stand in next month's local elections and discovered that some of the householders were not on the electoral register.

He said he raised the issue with one of the officers and added: "One of the reasons given was that sometimes illegal immigrants may be housed and would not go on the electoral register straight away."

Turning to the other issue he said: "I was explaining that I repeatedly get telephone calls, one of which was from either Vodafone or Santander with regards to my billing.

"I tried to mimic the caller's voice to officers A and C. I told them that I could not understand a word the caller was saying."

"In no way did my interpretation, nor the comments I made on that day, have any racial malice or meaning behind them."

Today Cllr Whittingham, a 61-year-old marine engineer, said he was the victim of “character assassination” and claimed his remarks had been taken out of context.

The father of three confirmed that he was de-selected by the Conservatives several weeks ago and was standing an as Independent in next month’s elections.

He added: “I knew for a fact that I was going to be found guilty.

"The Tories want my ward.”