UUP councillor silenced after failing to retract ‘underhanded’ comment

COUNCILLORS voted in favour of silencing UUP’s Mark Ovens after he labelled the council ‘underhanded’ and refused to retract his statement during a council meeting.

At the meeting of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council on Wednesday, representatives voted in favour of silencing UUP councillor Mark Ovens after he accused the organisation of being ‘underhanded’ over a decision to introduce a booking system for council refuse collection that he said “was not subject to debate”.

In response to this, Sinn Féin Councillor Anne Marie Donnelly called on the Council Chief Executive, Allison McCullagh, to comment.

Ms McCullagh described Councillor Ovens’ comments as “inappropriate” and “wrong”.

Sinn Féin’s Stephen McCann then called on Councillor Ovens to “provide evidence” to “back up” the comments”.

Councillor Ovens was then called upon to retract his comments. He refused, saying, “I don’t.”

A ten-minute adjournment was then called to allow Sinn Féin to discuss the Erne West Councillor’s comments.

The adjournment was granted by Council Chairman, Sinn Féin Councillor Barry McElduff, and all Sinn Féin councillors left the Chamber.

Upon the return 10 minutes later, the Council Chairman gave Cllr Ovens another chance to retract the statement, telling him that there were concerns expressed that he was “bringing the Council into disrepute”.

This was refused by Cllr Ovens, who proceeded to say the definition of underhanded.

He said, “The definition of ‘underhand’ in the dictionary is something that is conducted in secret. This decision was taken in secret.”

Sinn Féin group leader Debbie Coyle said she was disappointed that Councillor Ovens had not retracted his comments, and a vote was taken to silence the UUP councillor due to [his] “offensive behaviour in the Council Chamber”.

The proposal passed, with 20 councillors voting in favour.

“There will be no further discussion on this,” said Councillor McElduff, who then continued the meeting agenda.

In response to his silencing, Councillor Mark Ovens told the Ulster Herald that he was extremely disappointed by the silencing and he believes that the only thing bringing the council into disrepute is the number of decisions taken in confidential business.

Cllr Ovens said, “I was deeply disappointed and surprised to be silenced after raising genuine concerns about an issue that is important, and a decision was made without proper debate. I do not believe that anything I did or said brought the council into disrepute; in fact, I believe what is doing so is the number of items of business that are being talked about in the chamber in confidential business.”