It has come to my attention that Councillor Dave Patrick, a UKIP parish councillor, sent an abusive message to a member of the public, David Gutteridge.

And fairly so, Mr Gutteridge made a complaint against Cllr Patrick to the conduct committee, which falls under Fenland District Council.

Since, the chairman of the committee has met an independent person and the case is now in the public domain and a meeting has been set; you can see all of these details online.

However, the reason I write this letter is because the chairman of the conduct committee is Councillor Samantha Hoy.

I think it is worth pointing out that she hasn’t openly declared a conflict of interest for this case despite the fact that David Gutteridge was one of the electors who signed her nomination papers for the Wisbech South by-election (you can see this online)!

Not that I jump to the defence of UKIP at all (did you see my last letter?) but your report also states Cllr Patrick claims that Mr Gutteridge sent a private and abusive message to him, before Cllr Patrick responded.

I am not condoning what either of these individuals has allegedly done, it shouldn’t happen as we should all have a certain level of respect for each other.

However, why hasn’t Cllr Hoy declared a conflict of interest?

JAMES LOWERY

Via e-mail