Councillor Said 'Put Disabled Children Down'

A councillor who said disabled children "should be put down" has apologised but refused to resign, claiming he has done nothing wrong.

Collin Brewer, an independent member of Cornwall County Council, made the remarks at an equalities event.

The councillor was talking to Theresa Court, advice services manager with Disability Cornwall, in October 2011.

She said: "I remember him (Mr Brewer) coming over and asking what the stall was about. I was explaining to him about the parent partnership service when he said disabled children should be put down.

"He said they cost the council too much money. I felt physically sick. I was there with parents of disabled children at the time and I just had to turn my back on him."

She made a complaint over his comments, which has only recently been resolved.

Mr Brewer complied with a standards board order to apologise, but said he will not resign.

Speaking to the BBC, he said he was "hot under the collar" and had been "caught on the wrong day".

"It's not a good enough excuse, I will forever be apologising for it. I can't apologise enough. It's not something that's in my nature, I always support disabled charities. I am very sorry," he said.

"Clearly it has gone to the standards board to provide any penalty whatsoever and the penalty they imposed was to write a letter of apology.

"I have no intention of resigning. I don't think I have done anything wrong. I have apologised."

A spokesman for disabled charity Scope described Mr Brewer's outburst as "outrageous".

He said: "Comments such as this have absolutely no place in modern society and should be consigned to the history books."

A council spokeswoman pointed out that councils no longer have the power to suspend councillors.

She added: "In this case, the monitoring officer found that there had been a breach of the code of conduct and determined that the only appropriate and proportionate sanction he could impose was to require Councillor Brewer to issue a formal apology."

Children's services director Trevor Doughty said: "I am shocked and disappointed by the remarks made by Councillor Brewer.

"The comments were cruel and ignorant and are contrary to the council's policy of supporting all people with disabilities.

"We are very proud of the disability services provided in Cornwall and wish to totally disassociate ourselves with these completely unacceptable views."