Ergin Erbil cleared by conduct committee over misleading golf course video

Councillors backed the findings of a review which found the former council leader hadn’t intended to spread misinformation during the election campaign, reports Joe Ives, Local Democracy Reporter

Enfield Civic Centre with (inset left) Crews Hill Golf Club and (inset right) Ergin Erbil

Former council leader Ergin Erbil did not break the civic centre’s code of conduct by posting a misleading video during the election campaign, a committee has ruled.

The decision reached last Thursday (10th) by Enfield Council’s councillor conduct committee followed an internal review by Terry Osborne, director of law and governance, following several complaints about the video from members of the public.

On Sunday, 22nd February, when he was still council leader and while he was campaigning for re-election, Cllr Erbil published a video on both his Facebook and X accounts in which he falsely claimed Crews Hill Golf Club was not within the Green Belt, only had 20 members, and was not important for wildlife.

This prompted a backlash from the golf club, which pointed out that it has over 400 members and is indeed part of the Metropolitan Green Belt.

Cllr Erbil initially refused to apologise or take down the posts. Around two weeks later, in March, the then-council leader removed the video. However, he still refused to apologise for publishing multiple false claims.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) at the time, Cllr Erbil said the clip had been taken down because the “volume of complaints” from “a small number of golf course users” risked becoming “a distraction” from more important issues.

At the election in May, Cllr Erbil’s Labour group lost their majority on the council for the first time in 16 years, with Alessandro Georgiou now leading a minority Conservative administration.

Cllr Erbil remains leader of the Labour opposition group.

In her review of the golf course video, Osborne, serving as monitoring officer, found Cllr Erbil had not broken the council’s code of conduct.

But her decision was challenged by Declan Linnane, who had written to the council the day the Labour leader had posted his video, alleging that Cllr Erbil had made at least three statements that were “demonstrably and materially wrong”.

Matt Burn, from campaign group Better Homes Enfield, also challenged the senior officer’s decision.

Unlike Cllr Erbil, Burn turned up to last week’s committee meeting. “This is not about political debate or differences of opinion,” he said.

“We’re talking about misleading claims – presented as facts – which could easily have been checked.”

He continued: “The monitoring officer acknowledges errors were made but says they’re acceptable because the councillor believed the statements.

“A genuine mistake may be a reason not to punish somebody severely, but it’s not a reason to leave the mistake uncorrected.

“There is no meaningful consideration in the monitoring officer’s report of whether residents may have been misled. In fact, it says any adverse impact on the public is not relevant.”

Burn added: “I struggle to understand how that can be right when the code requires councillors to preserve public confidence and maintain public trust.”

In a written statement to the committee, Cllr Erbil said: “Throughout this matter I have acted in good faith and in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct.

“At no stage did I set out to mislead residents.”

The former Labour leader claimed that the comments contained in his social media post reflected his “genuinely held views about the housing crisis facing Enfield”.

Committee chair Chris Dey said: “We have considered very carefully whether Cllr Erbil breached any part of the member code of conduct and we are satisfied that he did not – and this decision was unanimous.”

Explaining the decision, Cllr Dey pointed to “reflection” and subsequent “adjustments” made to the misleading video made by Cllr Erbil.

No comment was issued regarding the fact the post had remained online for an extended period of time after the Labour leader had first been made aware of its inaccuracies.

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