I READ with astonishment the front page report about the vote of no confidence in the former mayor of Ferryhill Town Council, Richard Smith (Echo, Jul 13).

To read that the mayor voted in favour of the motion against him must inevitably lead to the question why is he being allowed to remain in office as a town councillor when, because of his now widely reported homophobic views, he has no confidence in his suitability to carry out the duties of being either a chairman or mayor?

It is, however, not just his acceptance of his unsuitability to serve in these positions, it is also the fact that he had, for the whole of his service as a councillor and, of course, during his campaign to get elected as a councillor, sought to keep his homophobic views free from public scrutiny.

It is within this context that I would remind Cllr Smith that he must at all times adhere to the seven Nolan Principles of public life which apply to anyone seeking to serve in a public office.

Two of those principles are openness and honesty. Clearly Cllr Smith has not been either open nor honest with those he claims to represent, which is a clear breach of the principles.

Therefore, it is time for him to remove himself from public office.

If he refuses, consideration should be given to having him removed from public office, and I will be asking Labour town councillors to take these steps, or hold a parish meeting and a parish poll.

This is the same approach that councillors, including myself, from the Ferryhill Association for Independent Representation (FAIR) during the council’s “debit card scandal” because we believe in openness and honesty.

At the end of the day, what the people voted for in that parish poll eventually came to be.

Brian Gibson, Ferryhill