A formal review has found no evidence that senior Salford City Council figures deliberately suppressed a misconduct complaint but said poor communication had damaged trust among councillors.
The row followed the removal of an anonymous complaint alleging breaches of councillor and officer codes of conduct, which was sent to City Mayor Paul Dennett and blind-copied to 45 other members in late 2024.
The message was obscured from all inboxes shortly after being received, leading to accusations that the Labour-run council had intervened to protect a senior figure in the council.
A review written by the council’s City solicitor and monitoring officer, Surjit Tour, concluded the action did not amount to a cover-up.
The report states the email was flagged over cyber-security concerns after being linked to anonymous accounts associated with phishing risks, and that the decision to obscure it was taken to allow IT staff to assess it safely.
However, the review accepts the council’s communication with elected members was flawed. Councillors were initially told the email had been removed automatically, when in reality human intervention played a decisive role. The report admits this lack of clarity “undermined trust and confidence”.
It also highlights a wider governance failure, noting there was no clear audit trail recording why the decision was taken at the time, and that poor coordination between IT, legal and communications teams added to confusion.
The original complaint itself was ultimately rejected on legal grounds. Under Paragraph 2.2 of the council’s “Arrangements,” the monitoring officer must reject any complaint where the name and address are not provided.
Despite being given a deadline to do so, the anonymous sender declined, meaning the case could not proceed.
The report was considered by the council’s Standards Committee on Friday January 30.
