A Sandwell councillor who assaulted a blogger by knocking the phone out of his hands has apologised for the incident.
Steve Melia has resigned from all council committees and said he deeply regretted his actions.
He pleaded guilty to assault at Dudley Magistrates' Court in February 2022 and was conditionally discharged for 12 months and ordered to pay £130 legal costs and £200 compensation.
The incident occurred during protests at a council meeting discussing the development of a former golf course.
Blogger Julian Saunders’ phone was knocked out of his hands as he challenged councillors arriving for the meeting in 2021.
However, following the apology Mr Saunders said he would be making a further complaint that Mr Melia should have resigned.
Last year the council's ethics and standards committee recommended Mr Melia apologise during the next full council meeting and send Mr Saunders a written apology.
Mr Melia addressed his actions and apologised at a full council meeting on Tuesday, asking the leader to ‘accept my resignation from all committees that I currently sit on, so I can concentrate on development of my skills further.’
He added that ‘at no time did I want to hurt anyone, I just wanted the filming to stop’.
The external auditor Grant Thornton today also called for national changes after cataloguing a ‘toxic’ culture and ‘dysfunctional environment’ at Cheshire East Council.
