A SENIOR councillor who called a member of the public a ‘pillock’ during a planning site visit has been told to ‘reflect on his behaviour’ by a panel of councillors.

Cllr John Galvin did not treat all people with respect during the visit to the former Groves Chapel near Union Terrace, the standards sub-committee concluded yesterday at the end of a stormy meeting.

It said Tory group leader, Cllr David Carr, should help him reflect on his behaviour, which contravened City of York Council’s code of conduct and, if it was available and they felt it was needed, training should be arranged for him.

It also called for a review and revision of protocols during site visits, particularly for planning committee chairs, and said there might need to be specialist training and advice for them.

It decided Cllr Galvin had not been biased when he chaired the area planning meeting despite being a governor of York Hospital NHS Trust, which wanted to sell the old chapel. It said he was acting on the advice of a monitoring officer in doing so.

The meeting was sparked by complaints from Union Terrace residents Andrew and Rosy Dickinson about the councillor’s behaviour during the site visit in March and then at a subsequent planning sub-committee meeting, during consideration of a controversial planning application to convert the chapel into a supermarket.

He said a man who drove a lorry around Union Terrace to demonstrate opponents’ concerns during the site visit was a ‘pillock.’

Mr Dickinson said yesterday the use of the word was indicative of a lack of respect by Cllr Galvin for objectors, and said he had failed to act with the impartiality demanded by his position.

Mrs Dickinson said his behaviour had been ‘shocking’, claiming he had been rude and discourteous, had sworn at a member of the public and ridiculed someone else, and she suggested he might be misogynistic.

She said she worked in education and such behaviour would be totally unacceptable in that environment. She also claimed ‘pillock’ was originally a word for penis.

Cllr Galvin said he flatly refuted the complaints against him, suggesting they were a ‘complete fabrication’ which JK Rowling could have written.

He said he did not swear during such meetings, was not biassed and always allowed objectors a ‘fair crack of the whip,’ and he also claimed the behaviour of objectors during the site visit had been ‘disgusting and disgraceful’, with officers ‘howled down’ and protesters ‘jumping up and down.’

He said pillock’ was a slang term meaning “stupid person’ and not a swear word.