The boss of one of Cornwall’s largest holiday parks is threatening the chairman of the local council with legal action after criticising his behaviour at a parish meeting as “disgraceful”. Ian Stewart, chair of Portreath Parish Council, has apologised for what he says was a light-hearted joke but is refusing to stand down as chairman.

The first thing Mr Stewart knew about the issue was when he received an email from a Cornwall Council standards officer on Monday, October 9 informing him of a code of conduct complaint made by luxury holiday lodge resort Gwel an Mor, which is based in Portreath.

The company’s operations director is calling for Mr Stewart to stand down from his council role and has threatened him, and possibly Cornwall Council, with legal action.

Falmouth Packet: Ian Stewart is refusing to stand downIan Stewart is refusing to stand down (Image: LDR)

The complaint states that when a speaker said he worked at Gwel an Mor during a meeting in the neighbouring parish of Illogan on September 19, Mr Stewart “crossed his fingers”, as if to say ‘stay away from me’, and at the same time hissed and boo-ed the employee.

Mr Stewart responded to the council email saying he was willing to apologise to the holiday park, which is owned by American company Cove Communities, but said the matter had been taken out of context.

He responded to council officer Simon Mansell: “These introductions were very light-hearted and jokes were being made by and about other attendees in a very informal light-hearted way. When it came to the gentleman from Gwel an Mor, he introduced himself as the person in charge of the hot tubs.

“At that point the clerk and clerk’s assistant of Illogan Council both looked at me, laughed and looked pointedly at the gentleman. This was because both our councils have raised objections to a number of planning applications from Gwel an Mor in recent times which have not been taken well by their management.

"Whilst these objections are serious at a council level, my gesture of closing my fingers and joining in with the rest of the light-hearted jeering was meant to be no more than a joke and I was not the only one.”

He added: “The remainder of the day continued with no animosity shown by myself or the Gwel an Mor employee. In fact, we actually engaged in some friendly and interesting discussions. I am disappointed that he did not recognise a joke when it was made.”

Mr Stewart has since apologised to the holiday park and Cornwall Council has rejected the complaint as a result. However, Gordon Walker, operations director of Cove UK which runs Gwel an Mor, has accused the parish council chairman of a “palm off” apology and is now seeking legal advice both against Mr Stewart and “if needs be Cornwall Council if this is not resolved”.

In an email sent to Mr Stewart and seen by us, Mr Walker says: “Your behaviour towards a junior team member representing our company was nothing short of disgraceful and if you believe this type of behaviour – which clearly shows you have no impartiality when it comes to Cove UK – is acceptable then clearly you have a total disrespect for your councillors’ code of conduct and are not fit to be leader of the parish council.

“Our dealing with you and others in the parish council has been somewhat unbalanced and not without impartiality … and let me stress there are several councillors whom we respect and happily work with us on local incentives for the residents, but on the other hand we have had examples of institutional racism, [with] comments such as ‘Don’t bring the Americans’, and recently the personal belittling of a young team member in front of a business audience.”

He added: “You should do the honourable thing and resign – you are an absolute disgrace.”

Mr Stewart told us he has no intention of resigning and added: “I can answer and mostly refute all his comments, but if there is legal action to be initiated, I do not think it is wise to do so at this time.”

The relationship between the parish council, Portreath residents and Gwel an Mor has often been a tense one. There were protests in the village last year when the company applied to build 25 lodges abutting an ancient woodland. The strength of feeling proved so powerful that Cove UK withdrew the planning application.

The parish council recently objected to two further applications, which will be decided by Cornwall Council – one to knock down ten lodges around a fishing lake and replace them with nine bigger and better dwellings, and another to build ten more lodges. The council said Gwel an Mor aimed to accommodate 1,700 people on the site overlooking the village – the same amount of people as currently live in the parish as a whole.