AN INVESTIGATION is under way into how a complaint hearing against a Bexley councillor was given her apologies for non-attendance when she had not been notified of the hearing.

Crayford councillor Geraldene (corr) Lucia-Hennis was suspended from Bexley Council in her absence, by the standards complaints sub-committee which met on January 26.

But the councillor protested when she discovered her apologies had been falsely given to the meeting.

As a result, the sub-committee’s decision has been quashed and a new complaints hearing will have to take place.

Cllr Lucia-Hennis says she is furious she only discovered the situation halfway through her punishment.

Now the council’s chief executive, Will Tuckley, has launched an investigation into how her apologies came to be given to the meeting, if Cllr Lucia-Hennis had sent none.

The complaints sub-committee was convened after a member of the public claimed he had been verbally abused by Cllr Lucia-Hennis following a Crayford Community and Business Forum meeting.

She was not at the hearing to defend herself because she had not formally been told of the meeting.

The sub-committee upheld the complaint in her absence and suspended her from the council for a month, barring her from all council meetings.

This also had the effect of reducing her councillor’s £9,453 a year allowance by 75 per cent for the month of her suspension.

Cllr Lucia-Hennis, who was elected a councillor in 2006, said she could not comment further because of the investigation and because she will defend herself at the new hearing.

This is the second time a complaint against the councillor has been referred to the standards sub-committee.

In August last year she was censured for failing to declare a financial and prejudicial interest in a planning application, while sitting on the council’s planning committee.

She spoke against the application to turn Crayford town hall into a 180 seater restaurant, despite the fact her family owns a pub just minutes away from the town hall, which serves meals.

Cllr Lucia-Hennis admitted breaking the rules, but gained sympathy among many of her constituents who were also opposed to the scheme.

There was further criticism of Cllr Lucia-Hennis in 2008 when, as a member of the licensing sub-committee, she sat on the sub-committee hearing which refused a licence for lap dancing at Sidcup Snooker Club.

At the same time, her family owned pub, The Charlotte in Station Road, Crayford, had also applied for a similar licence to host adult entertainment.

That application was also refused two months later, but Cllr Lucia-Hennis was criticised by some members of the public for having a conflict of interest.

Bexley Council said it could not comment in view of the pending re-hearing of the complaint