Agenda and minutes

Members will declare any pecuniary or significant other interests they have in relation to the items on this agenda.

Councillor R Duffy declared a non-pecuniary significant, non-pecuniary, other interest in complaint Ref: 2017/01, included in the Summary of Current Complaints (agenda item 4) because she had an involvement in that complaint.  She said that she would leave the meeting before that item was discussed.

Confirmation of the Minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 10 November 2016 and 7 February 2017.

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 10 November 2016 and 7 February be confirmed as a correct record.

Schedule prepared by the Monitoring Officer.

The Monitoring Officer will report verbally on the latest position with regard to the complaints listed and any issues arising from them.

The Monitoring Officer submitted a schedule summarising complaints of alleged breaches of the Council’s Code of Conduct which were currently being processed or had been completed since the last report to the Standards Committee.  Ms Hadgraft said that brief details of each of the complaints were included in the schedule.  She provided further information to the Committee at the meeting, as follows:

Ref: 2015/07(ii)

The Monitoring Officer reminded Members that she had reported at the last Standards Committee that a meeting was to be arranged with the complainant to establish further facts.  That meeting had now taken place and the complainant had requested that a new complaint be raised.  This complaint had therefore been superseded by complaint 2016/18 which was referred to later on in this schedule.

Ref: 2016/04

The investigation being undertaken by an external body was still ongoing and there was therefore nothing new to report.

Ref: 2016/05

As indicated in the schedule, the investigation carried out by an external agency had been completed.  In the absence of any evidence of misconduct, no further action would be taken and the complaint had been concluded.

Ref: 2016/11(a)

Complaint Ref: 2016/11 had been split in to two parts (a) and (b) because it related to two subject members who, during the later stages of the complaints process, had had to be dealt with separately because of their different circumstances.  A special Standards Committee Hearing had been held on the 7 February 2017 to consider complaint Ref: 201/11(a).  The hearing had concluded that the subject member had breached the code of conduct and had made a recommendation to the relevant Parish/Town Council to report this finding at its next Council meeting. That meeting had now taken place and the minutes from the meeting had been published.  She confirmed that the minutes did include a reference to the findings of the Standards Hearing as requested. This complaint was therefore now concluded.

Ref: 2016/11 (b)

At its last meeting the Standards Committee had discussed the fairest way to deal with this complaint which had been received and dealt with under the first stage of the Council’s process.  Following an investigation the findings had been reported to those involved.  The then subject member had not accepted the findings, had not carried out the sanction that had been requested (which was a public apology at the next council meeting) and had then resigned as a Councillor.  It had been agreed that, rather than just report those findings to the Council concerned with a recommendation to record the outcome in its minutes, it would be appropriate to offer the opportunity to the individual to a Standards Hearing, particularly as the details of this case were intrinsically linked to complaint 2016/11(a) and it had already been agreed that it was would be appropriate to convene a hearing for that case.

However, the individual had subsequently declined the offer of a hearing and the matter now had to be formally concluded.  She therefore intended, following this meeting, to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

The next meeting of the Committee is scheduled for 6.00pm on Thursday 15 June, 2017.

The Committee noted that its next scheduled meeting was currently due to be held at 6pm on Thursday 15 June 2017.