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Former councillor receives £15,000 apology from Bristol park group chair
A Bristol park group chair is paying a former councillor £15,000 as part of an apology for labelling them as a ‘bully’ and ‘misogynist.’
Sian Ellis-Thomas who is the chair for Friends of Redcatch Park, issued the apology to former councillor Gary Hopkins following the accusations that were made in June 2023 as part of an official complaint from the Friends of Redcatch Park group.
In a statement on the Friends of Redcatch Park website, she wrote “I, Sian Ellis-Thomas, offer an apology for my statements and actions towards Gary Hopkins, who at the time was a long serving councillor for the Knowle ward.
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“I said that he was a bully and a misogynist and habitually misled local people. I accept that there was no basis for these statements and wish to apologise to Hopkins and anyone else that may have been misled or upset by my remarks which were publicly made. As a mark of my regret, I have agreed to make a payment to him of £15,000”.
At the time the former Liberal Democrat for Knowle who lost his seat earlier this year had dismissed it as a “crude smear,” now he says “the apology speaks for itself”.
The group was at odds with Hopkins over how the park’s tennis courts should be maintained and upgraded, and how to fund it, with Sian Ellis-Thomas in favour of introducing a pay-to-play initiative the last free to play courts in the city.
The tennis courts are now currently charged at £5 per court/hour.
Main photo: Charlie Watts
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