Agenda and minutes

To appoint a member to chair the meeting.

Resolved:  That Cllr Douglas be appointed as Chair of the meeting.

At this point in the meeting, Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary interest or other registerable interest they might have in respect of business on this agenda, if they have not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests.

Members were asked to declare at this point in the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interests or other registerable interests they might have in respect of business on the agenda, if they had not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests.

No interests were declared, but for the sake of transparency Cllr Waudby stated, in relation to Agenda Item 4, that he was acquainted with a member of the City Council who was also a member of the same council as the subject members and complainants.

To consider excluding the public and press from the meeting during consideration of the private report at Agenda Item 4 (Complaints received in respect of Parish / Town Councillors), on the grounds that it contains information relating to individuals.  This information is classed as exempt under paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006.

Resolved:  That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the private report at Agenda Item 4 (Code of Conduct Complaint received in respect of Parish / Town Councillors), on the grounds that it contains information relating to individuals, which is classed as exempt under paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) Order 2006.

To consider five complaints in respect of the Code of Conduct received in respect of four Parish/Town Councillors, and to determine next steps.

Note: the private report referred to in Agenda Item 3 above follows the public report on this item.

Members considered a report on five Code of Conduct complaints received in respect of four Parish / Town.  Details of the complaints and the circumstances were presented in the private report referred to in Minute 39 above.

The report invited Members to decide whether to:

1)   Rule that the complaint did not fall within the remit of the Code of Conduct and therefore no further action be taken;

or

2)   Rule that the complaint should progress to an investigation, in which case the Monitoring Officer would appoint an investigating officer in accordance with the procedure for the handling of complaints. 

Discussion took place in private session, in accordance with the decision in Minute 35.  During the debate, it was confirmed that a third option was available; namely, to seek informal resolution, as set out in paragraph 4 of the complaints procedure approved by Joint Standards Committee in January 2020.

Having considered the information provided, and taking into account the views of the Independent Person at the meeting, it was

Resolved:  That the sub-committee finds that all 5 of the complaints constitute potential breaches of the Code of Conduct, and that informal resolution be sought in respect of them all.

Reason:     In accordance with paragraph 4 of the complaints procedures.