Issue - meetings

REPORT OF THE MONITORING OFFICER

The report updates Members of the Committee on standards issues locally and nationally.

RESOLVED: That the report of the Monitoring Officer be noted.

Audio Recording – 10:00

The Monitoring Officer presented the Standards Matters report and drew attention to the following:

·                The report covered complaint volume, training undertaken by Members, and the adoption of the new LGA Code of Conduct;

·                At the point of upload there had been 41 complaints; there were now 45 complaints;

·                These complaints were in relation to Great Ashby Community Council (GACC)

·                Five District Councillors had not completed compulsory training and group leaders had been made aware.

The following Members asked questions:

·                Councillor Judi Billing

·                Councillor Mike Rice

·                Councillor Richard Thake

·                Councillor Claire Strong

In response to questions the Monitoring Officer advised:

·                There had been an attempt to mediate with parties in GACC earlier in the year which had been unsuccessful;

·                The Committee was unable to discuss the particulars of any complaint currently ongoing;

·                A number of complaints relating to GACC were raised by one person against various other members;

·                Only 18 of a possible 200 local council members attended training offered by Paul Hoey on the Code of Conduct and none from GACC;

In response to questions Mr Nicholas Moss, Independent Person, advised:

·                The majority of complaints related to parish councils by sheer weight of numbers as there were more parish councillors than District councillors;

·                He had observed a tendency in members of the public to lodge complaints against elected members as a way to complain about or challenge decisions taken by them where a more proper recourse would be the electoral process;

·                The Monitoring Officer and her team were required to triage complaints that came in and their workload was high.

RESOLVED: That the report of the Monitoring Officer be noted.