Labour Mayor of Hartlepool in trouble again

The Labour Mayor Hartlepool is at the centre of more controversy after local radio station Radio Hartlepool reported him to the police and the council for his behaviour.

Cllr Stephen Akers-Belcher was sacked from his day job as a team leader for Newcastle City Council's Community Mental Health team earlier in the month for gross misconduct and is currently appealing that decision. Now Radio Hartlepool have reported him for what appears to be exerting undue influence over the station not to criticise either the Labour Party or himself. Very few details have been made public but Cllr Akers-Belcher told the Hartlepool Mail from his holiday in Mexico with the leader of the council (his civil partner, Cllr Christopher Akers-Belcher) that his only contact with the station was to tell them not to be political.