Agenda and minutes

At the Council meeting on 3 October 2019 Cllr Swales was appointed to this Committee in place of Cllr Beavers.

The Chairman (Cllr Catterall) welcomed Cllr Swales to her first meeting of the Committee, following her appointment to the Committee (in place of Cllr Beavers) at the Council meeting on 3 October 2019.

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

None.

Confirmation of the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 20 June 2019.

Agreed that the minutes of the meeting held on 20 June 2019 be confirmed as a correct record.

Schedule prepared by the Monitoring Officer, attached

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 which had been completed since the last meeting of the

Committee.

She provided further information on each of the complaints referred to in the

schedule, as follows:

2019/08 and 2019/09

The Monitoring Officer explained that, as reported at the last meeting, complaints 2019/08 and 2019/09 were very much interlinked and therefore they had been dealt with simultaneously.

An investigation had now been concluded, the outcome of which had been considered by the Independent Person who had agreed with the proposed findings. With regard to both complaints, no breach of the code had been found. However it was clear from the details of both complaints that there were issues which, if addressed, would benefit the particular Council in question and the individuals involved. Therefore, a recommendation had been made to both the complainants and the subject members, that training be arranged by the Parish/Town Council and that all those involved attend, to prevent similar situations in the future.

The Monitoring Officer informed that Committee she had received an email at 4.15pm that afternoon from the complainant in Ref 2019/08, who was also the subject member in complaint Ref 2019/09, expressing their “displeasure” at the way the complaints had been dealt with and asking that the contents of the email be reported to the Committee.

In order to consider the new information submitted, the Committee then resolved:

That the public and press be excluded from the meeting whilst complaints 2019/08 and 2019/09 were considered, on the grounds that their presence would involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in category 1 (Information relating a particular individual) of Part 1 of Schedule 12(a) of the Local Government Act, 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Variation Order 2006 and, that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

Whilst in confidential session, the Committee discussed the contents of the email submitted by the complainant/subject member and an explanation by the Monitoring Officer of the issues referred to in the complaints. When they had done so, the meeting continued in public session.

2019/10

The Monitoring Officer said that it had not yet been possible to move this complaint forward because she had not had the chance to speak with the subject member. A meeting had now been arranged for the middle of November. Hopefully, once that meeting had taken place, the complaint could be resolved.

2019/11

The Monitoring Officer reported that, as with the previous complaint, this also involved inappropriate comments on social media. She said that these types of complaints were often difficult to address, particularly when considering whether or not a member was acting in their capacity as a councillor. This was because the member of the public saw comments they believed were inappropriate. As they were aware the individual making those comments was a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee is due to be held at 6pm on 12 March 2020.

Noted that the next scheduled meeting of the Committee was at 6pm on 12 March 2020.