Press Officer Cleared

A council press officer who was suspended last year for releasing a report at a press briefing, has been cleared of any misconduct. Mark Lepkowski, public relations manager at Stratford-on-Avon District Council faced disciplinary action for allegedly breaching an Audit Commission embargo, but the Council has now acknowledged that Mr Lepkowski, who has worked for the council for ten years, is without any blame.

"This is a very unusual situation for the council," said Paul Lankester, the council's chief executive. "The decision to suspend Mark was based on information available at that time which turned out to be inaccurate. As soon as this information was confirmed as being incorrect, the suspension was ended."

"We would never publicly comment on staff issues but because Mark is the council's media spokesman and the details surrounding his suspension were widely reported by that media, there is a case for an exception in this instance."

"Mark has been exonerated of any misconduct and has received an unreserved apology for the distress this whole matter has caused him.  We all now want to put this matter behind us and continue to work effectively."

The suspension of Mr Lepkowski, and his reinstatement ten days later, followed a government inspection of the council last year by the Audit Commission under its Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) scheme. The details of the inspection were communicated to the local media at a press briefing on 27 October 2004, at which copies of the CPA report were handed out to the media in advance of an embargo set at 00.01hrs 28 October.

Although this is considered normal practice in media management terms, the council believed a breach had been committed, although it was not aware that the Audit Commission had already authorised release of the CPA report to the media the day before.

Although it has been acknowledged that this is an unusual situation for the council, there will be no further statements made on this matter by either the council or Mr Lepkowski.