I wrote a post on Tuesday evening (see below) bemoaning the lack of accountability, transparency and honour amongst Nottingham City councillors in which I cited what I considered to be three prime examples of where various public servants had fallen short of what we are entitled to expect of them.

One of these was Councillor Hassan Ahmed. Yesterday it appeared that he had been arrested in connection with an assault and sexual assault on a woman in July. Today it has been revealed that Councillor Ahmed was actually arrested shortly after the incident but the City Council kept this quiet and he has continued in his roles as both a local councillor and portfolio holder for employment and skills.

Obviously, Councillor Ahmed is innocent until proven otherwise but, in any other arena of public life (and probably in the private sector too), someone accused of such a crime would have stepped down from such an influential position until the investigation was concluded or would have been told to do so by his leader. 

The fact that Councillor Ahmed chose not to do the honourable thing and that City Council leader Jon Collins allowed him to continue as portfolio holder, must raise serious questions about the judgement of both and about the transparency – or lack of it – with which our local authority operates.

UPDATE (18th November) – The Crown Prosecution Service has announced that there is insufficient evidence to prosecute Councillor Ahmed for the alleged assault.