A Scots council could face legal action for 'reputational damage' after a man representing a conservation group was banned from raising complaints with officials.

Desmond Barr, who leads the Friends of Hawkhead Cemetery group in Paisley, was told by Renfrewshire Council that he had made too many inquiries about the 'poor' state of his local graveyard.

The local authority disclosed to the media that Mr Barr had made 57 enquiries over a nine-day period in June this year.

He was told that officials he contacts directly would no longer respond to his enquiries about moss and weeds on paths, the grass-cutting schedule and council policy on the inspection of headstones and he was advised to send emails to a generic council mailbox.

It later transpired that his 57 complaints were made over a period of one year and the council has now apologised.

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Mr Barr says he is now taking legal advice claiming the council's action have damaged his "reputation and credibility."

He said: “Council officials wrongly claiming I had sent all those emails in only a nine-day period has damaged my reputation and credibility.

 

“They make me out as some kind of pest, who was bombarding them with emails and this plainly wasn’t the case.

"“I am taking legal advice about being banned and the council’s false claims to the media in a bid to justify their outrageous attempts to silence me."

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The apology letter from the council states: “It appears that unfortunately when providing background to the media queries we received following the Friends of Hawkhead Cemetery Press release, the incorrect period was applied to the correspondence and should have been 57 queries between the period of 17 June 2022 and 26 June 2023.

“I would like to apologise for this error and we are this morning contacting those journalists who had made contact to clarify this point and where that guidance had been reported, we have asked for a correction.”

Mr Barr added: “All I’ve been doing as chairperson of the Friends of Hawkhead group is representing the concerns of the families of people who are buried there and trying to get the council to properly maintain the cemetery.

”I’ve said many times before that if the council would only do what is right and keep the cemetery in a proper state of maintenance and repair, then I wouldn’t need to contact them.”

The Herald has contacted Renfrewshire Council for comment.