Coventry councillor faces disciplinary action for tweeting

[dutchman]

A Coventry councillor could find himself banned from council meetings in future – for persistent ‘tweeting’ from his phone.



Coventry City Council’s Tory leader Kevin Foster has been warned by chief executive Martin Reeves and others he faces disciplinary action if he continues to defy a mobile phone ban.

Amazingly, Coun Foster clocked up 103 short messages called “tweets” on the social networking Twitter website during Tuesday’s three-hour full council meeting.

He was even forced to apologise in the chamber when one of his tweets misquoted Labour council leader John Mutton – falsely stating the leader had used the word “arse”.

But opposition leader Coun Foster has vowed to defy orders – and continue sending messages to his 400 Twitter followers – in a protest over “censorship” by the Labour-run council.

He told us: “I’m not going to be threatened.

“A ban backed up with threats is ridiculous and makes the council look like Jurassic Park.”

Each side is now accusing the other of making the council look like twits.

Coun Foster added: “Coventry City Council needs to get into the 21st century and get real before it embarrasses itself.”

His 103 tweets included a claim Coun Mutton had told Lib Dem councillor Russell Field to get his “head out of his arse”.

Coun Foster corrected the mistake on Twitter, to state Coun Mutton had actually used the word “backside”.

One Tory councillor, David Skinner, was heard amid laughter saying: “You couldn’t make it up!”