Coventry councillor Jayne Innes leaves post amid 'no MOT' claims and rows over fining motorists

Coventry councillor Jayne Innes has surprisingly left her role as a cabinet member amid accusations she had been driving without an MOT



Tensions between her and other members have spilled into the public domain intermittently over the years, but have been particularly prominent in recent months.

Accusations from opponents included that she had been driving without an MOT in recent weeks.

The national MOT database states the car’s MOT expired on November 8. When asked by the Observer about it this morning, she said: “As far as I am concerned I do have an MOT. I’ll go and check it. I’ve not had a reminder. If I thought my MOT had run out, I would leave the car.”

She later claimed the car in question, a Fiat 500c – seen and photographed since November 8 in the council car park – belonged to a family member and was now booked in for an MOT, without clarifying how it got there and declining to answer our further questions.

While the full circumstances of her departure are not known, she confirmed on Twitter this morning her departure from her cabinet member for City Services post.

She will be replaced by former Labour group whip and ex-cabinet member Patricia Hetherton.

Coun Innes also told us this morning: “I want to do a PhD in politics and gender studies. Leaving now allows a smooth transition for Pat before Christmas and enables me to prepare for university in the new year.

“If I don’t do a PhD now I’ll never get to do it.

“There’s been so many things I’ve loved doing, including road safety schemes, average speed cameras, bus lane suspensions – the air quality stuff I was enjoying as well.”

I hope the door doesn't hit her too hard on the way out!

Calls for independent inquiry into bullying claims at Coventry council



ALLEGATIONS of ‘endemic bullying at the top of Coventry City Council’ should be examined by a full independent inquiry, say opposition councillors.

It comes after alleged complaints by several council officers involving Labour councillor Jayne Innes.

We reported there had been strained relations in the run-up to her leaving her cabinet post for city services last week – amid months of high-profile controversies over fining motorists in parking and bus gate schemes.

Last week’s rumours were raised in public by opposition Conservative councillor Tim Sawdon at yesterday’s full council meeting.

Conservative opposition leader Gary Ridley revealed his group has written a letter to chief executive Martin Reeves – seen by the Observer – to call for a full barrister-led independent inquiry into the allegations of bullying at the Labour-run council.

Last month, we reported how leading Labour councillor Rois Ali had threatened to “stamp on” and “take to the cleaners” Tory councillor Tim Mayer for raising allegations of Code of Conduct breaches against him, subsequently upheld by an independent standards inquiry.

Labour city council leader George Duggins denied there was a bullying problem at the authority.

He said the proper mechanism to raise any such allegation was with the council’s monitoring officer.

But Coun Ridley said the public had a right to expect the council was functioning properly, without such distractions, and matters needed to be out in the open.

He called for an open and transparent inquiry to examine concerns of “endemic bullying at the top of Coventry City Council”.

He added such a procedure would give confidence to members and staff to come forward to report their concerns to the inquiry.

From memory, similar claims have been made in the past, and I've read of people attending council meeting who are appalled by the attitude of certain councillors to those that elected them. - The whole barrel is rotten!

Labour city council leader George Duggins denied there was a bullying problem at the authority.

It's not what I heard to day from a man that attended the council meeting.

Coventry council chiefs wanted to 'entrap' motorists for £120k more fines, claims ex-cabinet member



EX-cabinet member Jayne Innes quit over fellow Coventry council chiefs’ proposals to ‘entrap’ and fine even more motorists to an EXTRA £120,000 from bus lane enforcement, she claims.

The Labour councillor spoke to the Coventry Observer this week in an attempt to clear her name.

Her departure last November from the often controversial City Services cabinet member post – while she continues as councillor for Whoberley – had come amid internal and public fall-outs, after an independent tribunal had repeatedly ruled the council was unfairly fleecing fined motorists out of millions of pounds.

She now claims she quit over senior officers’ proposals to add four more enforcement cameras at bus lanes without informing her.

It made her position of two-and-a-half years untenable, she says.

Coun Innes claimed the plan was projected to make the council £120,000, but was withdrawn after the consultation process that went ahead despite her opposition.

Coun Innes told us: “I was locked out of the budget setting process for 2019/20.

“You should never be excluded as a cabinet member. I would expect to be properly consulted and be part of the process.

“I wasn’t going to be in a position where I was concerned that officers might be using bus lanes as a way of imposing a regressive tax.

“If I’d been consulted, the policy would never have got into that budget process.

“You don’t just enforce for the sake of it.

“Fines are a flat rate. They are a regressive tax.

“If we were doing any enforcement in my name. I needed to be absolutely 100 per cent clear it was for a good traffic reason.

“But I was concerned it was entrapment. I was never told we had a problem with motorists wrongly using our bus lanes.

“It would be unfair on motorists.

“If we’d have had the adjudicators back in the city, the whole of the signage and the enforcement and the whole of the council would have been brought into disrepute.”

Speaks out just before a local election? - Those allegations might just cost a few votes!