Taxi Driver Online

Taxi licence scandal councillors Subhan Shafiq and Stuart Burke land new Milton Keynes Council roles



TWO councillors implicated in the taxi driver scandal have landed new roles at Milton Keynes Council, despite calls for them to stand down altogether.

MKWeb has been inundated with comments on our website, twitter and Facebook calling on the councillors to resign in the past two weeks.

But Cllr Subhan Shafiq, the former mayor, will now chair the health and adult social care committee and the joint negotiating committee, despite having to tender his resignation as mayor only two weeks ago.

At last night’s Cabinet meeting, Cllr Stuart Burke, who was chairman of the licensing committee that granted Nadeem Ahmed Kiani a private hire taxi licence in 2011 despite his conviction of rape in 1994, was also given the role of chair of the overview and scrutiny managament committee and working group - which is designed to hold the council to account on decisions it has made.

Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Douglas McCall, who made the appointments, said that Cllr Shafiq ‘made a major sacrifice’ in resigning as mayor, and that made his punishment ‘proportionate’.

“We all make mistakes and we have got to be proportionate here,” he told the meeting.

“Cllr Shafiq has already made a major sacrifice in resigning as mayor.

“We have got to fill positions on committees with members of this group.”

In regards to Cllr Shafiq’s appointment to the health and adult social care committee, Cllr Alice Bramall told the meeting: “It is abhorrent that loyalty is getting in the way of commonsense.

“There are considerable concerns from the public and council regarding the position and future of Cllr Shafiq on the health and adult social care committee.

“It is unacceptable to me, my group and the public of Milton Keynes.”

Cllr Gladstone McKenzie, who was also involved in the scandal, has no new roles at the council.

Cllr Chris Williams has replaced Cllr Burke on the licensing committee, the meeting heard last night, with Cllr McKenzie’s role taken up by Cllr Robert Gifford.

Read more: http://www.mkweb.co.uk/Taxi-licence-sca ... z3D1IFSv85

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