Southam councillor who oversees communications at council defends use of secret recordings against political rivals

Cabinet member for projects and communications Councillor Louis Adam (Lib Dem, Southam North & Long Itchington) was the subject of questions to leader Councillor Susan Juned (Lib Dem, Alcester East) at Monday's meeting of the district council.

It relates to a meeting held by Southam councillors Tony Bromwich (Ind, Southam West) and Andy Crump (Con, Southam East, Central & Stockton) in December 2025 over their concerns about the volume of new homes proposed for Southam in the emerging South Warwickshire Local Plan.

The meeting was billed as public but it was not an official council meeting.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after Monday’s meeting, Cllr Adam admitted that he had recorded Cllr Bromwich and Cllr Crump anticipating that they would cite confidential figures and that he believed they had done so.

However, Cllr Adam confirmed that monitoring officer Marcia Eccleston – Stratford-on-Avon District Council’s most senior legal official and arbiter of code of conduct complaints – had since found no wrongdoing with Cllr Bromwich and Cllr Crump now seeking an "urgent meeting" to discuss Cllr Adam's "potential breaches of the code of conduct".

Leader 'not aware' of covert recordings

Cllr Bromwich raised the matter during questions to the leader, asking whether she "appreciates members of your cabinet doing covert recordings – which seems to come across as something we normally have from the likes of North Korea, China, Russia".

He asked: “Do you think that’s acceptable behaviour?”

Cllr Juned insisted: “I am not aware of any covert behaviour or recordings.

“If you have any evidence – and it has to be proper evidence – then that is something you can report to the monitoring officer.”

Ms Eccleston intervened and suggested such matters should not be discussed in open chamber but the baton was picked back up by leader of the opposition Councillor Daren Pemberton (Con, Bidford East).

He raised Cllr Adam’s name but was interrupted by cabinet member Councillor Liz Coles (Lib Dem, Stratford Hathaway) who asked: “Do we have any evidence for these slurs on my colleagues?”

Cllr Bromwich dived in to reply “yes” with Cllr Coles challenging him to “deal with it through the proper procedure”.

Chair Councillor Kate Rolfe (Lib Dem, Stratford Tiddington) then ordered a 10-minute adjournment, suggesting some councillors needed to “calm down a little”.

After that, Ms Eccleston urged councillors to stick to “matters which touch or concern the district”, adding: “If it concerns anything else, let’s say something that may or may not be investigative, that sits within the monitoring officer’s office and is not for debate, whether or not it is fact.

“That is clear from the chair, she has asked me to stress that and I am asking you to honour that.”

However, the pantomime continued with Cllr Coles asked to retract her use of the word “slur” by Cllr Pemberton who then had to apologise for lacing a jibe about “how the Liberal Democrat group operates” into his comment, something that drew howls of derision.

Cllr Adam’s confession

Cllr Adam did not speak during the squabble but told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he had recorded the meeting without telling Cllr Bromwich or Cllr Crump.

He said “it wasn’t for any surreptitious use” and that he didn’t record any members of the public.

"I only recorded the representations of the councillors," he said.

“I am not in possession of any recordings of members of the public from that event.”

Asked why he hadn’t been open about recording, Cllr Adam said: “It pertained to concerns I had that led to me submitting a complaint to the monitoring officer.

“I wanted to follow the proper procedure for raising those concerns, which I felt was to get their representations as they were making them to the public. If they backed up my concerns then I could pass them on – in this case they did.”

He confirmed his worries related to housing numbers in the new local plan and that what was said “could undermine the forming of the plan”.

Acknowledging no wrongdoing had been found, Cllr Adam said he “felt it was a reasonable concern given the sensitivity” of what was discussed. He said the outcome of the complaints “weren’t wholly satisfying” but that he accepted the decisions.

Asked what he had done to raise his concerns with the councillors before the December meeting, Cllr Adam said he “didn’t do a huge amount” because of the scale of information already publicised that a council officer had “suggested may be confidential”, an assessment he agreed with when he had looked at it.

Asked whether he regretted his actions, Cllr Adam replied: “To some extent. I like to work together with councillors of all stripes.

“I felt somewhat excluded from the process they were putting into action and I didn’t feel comfortable with the way they were doing it.”

However, he later argued he had “operated fairly” and that councillors had to accept that they were “all open to scrutiny”.

He considered that it was “hard to say” whether he would handle the situation differently given his time again and that “we should all reflect and work out if there are better ways to do things”, stating he would “certainly like to” talk through the issues with the affected councillors.

“My interest has always been representing the people of Southam and the wider area,” he said.

“I believe in proactively working together where possible. That has been difficult in the past which has led to the difficult situation here but I’d like to think no bridges have been burnt.”

The response

Cllr Bromwich wanted to give Cllr Juned, Cllr Adam and the district’s senior officers the opportunity to respond to him before going into detail but said talks with the council would continue about privacy concerns and whether Cllr Adam had breached the code of conduct through his actions.

Cllr Crump said: “We will be reviewing our options. We have real concerns about GDPR and will be taking advice from the appropriate officers at the council.”