CLLR GOUGH WANTS TO GET HIS HANDS ON OLD LAPTOP

Before Catherine Simpson resigned as clerk to Shiptonthorpe Parish Council in 2023, she passed the council laptop and back- up drive to the then chairman Victor Lambert. Victor had kept the laptop in his possession ever since.

On Tuesday evening Cllr David Gough was voted in as temporary chairman by Councillors Richard Waring and Edward Bowron.
It is my understanding that Cllr Gough has now written to formally request that Victor Lambert return the laptop to either Edward Bowron or Ward councillor Paul West. (Although Paul West is a ward councillor he has no formal role with the Parish Council so it is a mystery as to why the laptop should be returned to him).
It is also worth noting that any computer/laptop belonging to a Parish Council should be kept and managed by an officer of that Council. It is not in the remit of an ERYC Ward councillor to intervene in such Parish Council matters and certainly not his role to take temporary ownership of the laptop.
Cllr Gough claims that it was agreed at the Parish Council meeting on Tuesday that a data breach should be reported to the Information Commissioner. I was at that meeting, and I do not recall any discussion about a data breach. It must therefore be assumed that the motion was agreed in the confidential part of the meeting after the public had been requested to leave.
Former Chairman Lambert has five days to return the laptop and hard drive.
WHY THIS MATTERS
  • The laptop belongs to the council and should be returned. However, it would normally be kept by the clerk, but the clerk has resigned.
  • When returned, the laptop will be left in the possession of one of the four remaining councillors or ward councillor – not an officer of the Council.
  • Recently, Cllr Gough has stated publicly that he wants to forensically recover data from the laptop. He said he knows someone who could do the job cheaply but in reality this would cost several hundreds pounds, perhaps much more (of public funds)
  • The council voted against the retrieval of data at there meeting on 16th October.
  • We do not know exactly what the remaining councillors discussed during the confidential section of the meeting on Tuesday 28th but it now appears they discussed the laptop. We do not know if they passed another motion to overturn the previous decision not to extract deleted data.Councillor Gough’s future plans for the recovery of data are not known at the present time.
  • At the council meeting on 16th October Councillors Richard Waring and Tim Bowron said that they consider that any deleted data belongs to the council and should be recovered.
The laptop will soon be in the possession of the remaining 4 councillors. At least two of whom think data should be recovered.
I have also been informed that further formal complaints by a number of Shiptonthorpe residents against Cllr Gough are to be sent in writing to the ERYC Head of Legal Services next week.

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