I am also sending the following complaint to members of Cumbria County Council, details
here
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Dear Councillor,
I write as a concerned taxpayer and member of the public, although not a Cumbria resident, to you as a member of Cumbria County Council. I believe that the Council is a partner in the Cumbria Safety Cameras Partnership ("CSCP") and I wish to complain about the behaviour of its manager, Steve Callaghan.
Over the last year or two, Mr Callaghan has posted messages on a number of internet forums defending the role and actions of the CSCP, always under an alias and, in the case of the SafeSpeed forums, mostly using an account established by his colleague, the CSCP data analyst. As a result of his postings on SafeSpeed and elsewhere, he has brought down on himself some fairly harsh criticism, possibly unjustified but I cannot say that for certain. He has recently taken exception to certain specific comments posted on the SafeSpeed forums by a Cumbria resident, whose identity is easily ascertainable. Mr Callaghan (it appears) considers the comments to be actionable for defamation. Instead of taking action against the individual, he has used CSCP resources and written with the implied authority of the Chief Constable of Cumbria Constabulary in order to apply pressure on the SafeSpeed forum owner and its hosting organisation to remove the 'offending' messages by threatening a libel action against the host. In addition to the threads which contained the comments he originally objected to, one of the threads which has now been removed, as a direct result of Mr Callaghan's threats, included the following, being the text of an email message I sent to Mr Callaghan and posted on the SafeSpeed forum after I had learned of his action.
Dear Mr Callaghan,
You appear to believe that you have been libelled by messages on the SafeSpeed forums. You know the identity of the person who posted the comments to which you have taken exception; he has not sought to hide it, which is more than can be said for you. If you believe your reputation has been damaged, the correct and honourable thing to do is take action against that person. The actions that you have taken and threatened to take against Paul Smith, using your employer's resources and impliedly with your employer's knowledge and approval, are dishonourable and cowardly. The contents of this message, with my identity and address in clear, are being posted to the SafeSpeed forum. If you wish to take action against me for defamation, feel free.
Yours sincerely,
T R Spring
14 School Lane, Chalfont St Peter, Bucks SL9 9AU
As I said above, Mr Callaghan has brought the criticisms levelled at him upon himself. I am aggrieved that he is using his official position to stifle freedom of speech. There is nothing in my message to him that is other than fair comment on his actions and I object strongly to my freedom to comment being stifled by what appears to be the unauthorised use by a public servant of his official position.
My specific complaints about Mr Callaghan's actions and behaviour are as follows.
(i) He has used Cumbria Constabulary resources to pursue a personal agenda. Or, if it is not a personal agenda, how is it the lawful business of Cumbria Constabulary to pursue or threaten libel actions on behalf of its employees (and is Mr Callaghan an employee of the Constabulary anyway)?
(ii) His use of those resources (Cumbria Constabulary letterhead and the services of the CSCP communications manager, Kevin Tea, to write to the internet hosting company) imply that his actions have been taken on behalf of and are approved by the Chief Constable. If they are approved, that fact should be made public and substantiated by an official police spokesman. If not, Mr Callaghan has grossly abused his position.
(iii) His actions have resulted in the effective censorship of comments which I am wholly entitled to make under ordinary principles of free speech.
I request that you use whatever means available to investigate my complaint and I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.
Yours sincerely.
T R Spring
14 School Lane, Chalfont St Peter, Bucks SL9 9AU