A COMPLAINT made by the deputy mayor about two complaints made against her has not been upheld.

Cllr Onnalee Cubitt lodged a formal complaint against Cllr Andrew McCormick and deputy leader Cllr Simon Bound, accusing them of intimidation and disclosing confidential information.

She submitted the complaints after the pair complained about her, for using the term ‘Year Zero’ in comparison to a refit of the council offices, a term widely known as referring to the killing of two million people in the Cambodian genocide.

However, all complaints were dismissed by the council’s monitoring officer.

Cllr Cubitt accused her fellow councillors of trying to “besmirch” her reputation and “gain a greater political advantage” by making the Gazette aware of the internal email she sent using the term Year Zero.

In his response to the complaint, Cllr McCormick, leader of the Basingstoke Labour group, said: “It is debatable that a wide circulation e-mail to 60 councillors and 15 officers is “confidential”.”

The monitoring officer agreed, adding: “Further the email was not marked as confidential. There is no issued internal guidance to councillors about whether internal emails should be treated as confidential and therefore it cannot be said that the subject member ought reasonably to have been aware that the email could have been of a confidential nature.”

Cllr Cubitt, who jointly made the complaint with Cllr David Potter, also accused Cllr McCormick, and Cllr Bound of intimidation, suggesting their complaint was “not in truth an attempt to uphold proper standards of conduct but was in fact intended to silence Councillor Cubitt in particular.”

The monitoring officer said: “The fact that the complaint was not dismissed at Stage 1 of the complaint process demonstrates that there was an issue that needed proper consideration.”

She added: “The subject member [Cllr McCormick] and Cllr Bound made the complaint because of their understanding of the term ’Year Zero’; they sought to “call out” the language used by Cllr Cubitt as, in their view, it was insensitive, unacceptable and offensive. There is insufficient evidence to conclude that the subject member and Cllr Bound sought to intimidate Cllrs Cubitt and Potter by raising this complaint.”

The report said: “In their complaint, the subject member and Cllr Bound objected to the use of the term ‘Year Zero’. They clearly found the use of the term deeply offensive interpreting it as being a reference to: ‘The beginning (1975) of the period during which Cambodia was under the control of the Khmer Rouge’”.

Cllr McCormick told the Gazette: “I'm pleased to say the complaint about our complaint was thrown out. It was a bit Kafkaesque of them to complain that we had no right to complain about them.

“Simon and I were absolutely right to submit the complaint about Onnalee Cubitt. We have to take a stand against language that causes offence to victims of genocide by trivialising their experiences. We can't just sit by and let it go unchallenged.”

The complaint made about Cllr Potter was in relation to him endorsing Cllr Cubitt’s comments.

Cllr McCormick said: “Liking or endorsing comments has had precedent in being treated in the same way as making the comments themselves.”

He also raised concerns about Cllr Cubitt complaining that he had spoken to the Gazette, saying: “This gives cause for concern. It is a fundamental right to speak out on these things. We were absolutely right to go public about it. We were not making a political point, this is cross-party. There was an obvious public interest reason for doing so.

"Basingstoke is a diversifying community, and we need to embrace that. We must stand up for all our residents in Basingstoke and Deane, irrespective of who they are or who we are.”

Cllr Cubitt has been asked for a comment.