Councillor sanctioned over offensive Facebook posts

A town councillor has been sanctioned after comments he posted on Facebook were found to be "derogatory or offensive".

Carl Miller, who sits on Hatfield Town Council, in Doncaster, suggested renaming the town with a racial slur and said it was being "overwhelmed" by migrants in a post shared on 19 April.

He said at a hearing on Friday that the names he suggested were "real places" elsewhere in the world.

However, a sub-committee found the posts had breached the councillors' code of conduct.

Miller began his post by saying: "Having spent all day in my front garden, I could somehow be forgiven for thinking that my house has been moved to Africa," the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

He then made reference to the "Great Replacement" - a conspiracy theory which alleges that populations of white Europeans are being replaced by non-white people.

Miller, who does not represent a political party on the council, also posted a complaint about Labour MP Lee Pitcher, in which he repeated a racial slur and complained that family homes were being given to migrants.

The two posts were investigated after a complaint by Reform UK councillor Isaiah-John Smith-Reasbeck.

Sub-committee members recommended that Miller be removed from all council appointments.

At the same hearing, Miller was also disciplined for suggesting that fellow Hatfield town councillor Linda Curran would arrive at meetings "drunk".

Councillor Michael Glynn was also reprimanded for suggesting Curran "appeared to me to be a little bit worse for the wear for drinking" at council meetings.

Curran said she had never attended meetings drunk and that the claim from Miller was "defamatory".

Speaking after the hearing, she said: "I would like to thank the officers, Neil Concannon and his team, for their investigation of my complaint.

"Also, the audit committee for their time in listening to my complaints."

She added: "I believe people should be able to disagree in politics without it becoming a personal attack and abusive."

The sub-committee issued five sanctions against Miller and Glynn, including a requirement to issue a written apology to Curran and undertake training.

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