Bristol's councillor in 'coconut' row in bid to battle suspension

The Bristol city councillor at the heart of the "coconut" race row has applied for leave to appeal against her month-long suspension.

Liberal Democrat Shirley Brown was suspended by the authority's standards committee at the end of last month, preventing her from attending meetings or dealing with official council business.

The suspension has meant she is also unable to claim her monthly councillor's allowance.

Mrs Brown has applied to the Adjudication Panel for England Tribunal Service for leave to appeal.

The service president will decide later this week whether to grant an appeal hearing or dismiss the application, based on the likelihood of success.

If the appeal is allowed, Mrs Brown's punishment will be stayed pending a further decision from the adjudication panel.

This would allow her to resume her council duties.

The panel would then have three options; to dismiss the standards committee finding, to uphold it or to impose a different, potentially more severe sanction.

An appeal could take up to 12 weeks and could be dealt with by either written submissions from all parties or a tribunal hearing that would be held in Bristol.

In addition to her suspension, Mrs Brown was censured and rebuked for comments made to Conservative colleague Jay Jethwa at a full council budget debate in February.

Mrs Brown, who is black, called Mrs Jethwa, who is Asian, a "coconut" – a term used to describe someone who is seen to have "sold out their culture", being dark skinned on the outside but white in the middle.

The comment came after Mrs Jethwa supported a failed Tory proposal to cut funding for the Legacy Commission, an organisation that supports black people and ethnic minorities in Bristol.

The standards committee found Mrs Brown's behaviour had brought the council into disrepute, and she had not apologised soon enough.

But the committee did not believe the equalities aspect of the council's code of conducted had been breached.

The committee – made up of two independent members and a Labour councillor – had been given a report by council official Shahzia Daya that had recommended no further action be taken against Mrs Brown.

Ms Daya concluded that although the comment had a racial element to it, it was not racially abusive, and Mrs Brown's apology via the press was sufficient.

The committee disagreed, a decision which shocked Mrs Brown.

Further questions are due to be raised about the ongoing row at tonight's full council meeting.

Councillor John Goulandris, the Conservative who sat in with Mrs Jethwa at the standards committee meeting, has posed a number of questions for Liberal Democrat and council leader Barbara Janke.

He asked what assurances could be made the incident would not be repeated; whether Mrs Brown would be undergoing further equalities training and what internal disciplinary procedures the party has carried out.

Speaking ahead of tonight's meeting, Mrs Janke said: "Councillor Brown has unreservedly apologised for causing offence. Councillor Brown has applied for leave to appeal."

Mrs Janke said any subsequent requirements on Mrs Brown would depend on the outcome of any appeal.

She said she would remind the council the report of the investigation into the February incident found that there had been no breach of equality laws, this was an isolated incident and there was no intent to bully Mrs Jethwa.

The Post tried to contact Mrs Brown yesterday but she was unavailable for comment.

Spokeswoman for the adjudication panel Sharon Penn said: "We have received an application for appeal from Councillor Brown.

"If the appeal is refused we write to all parties and that is where it ends.

"It has not been decided yet, the president will decide sometime this week."