Issue - meetings

The Committee noted the Part 2 appendix and discussed the further details that had been provided, at the request of the Independent Person, in respect of one particular complaint that had been deemed not to meet the threshold of referral to the Standards Committee following a substantial Initial Assessment process.

The Committee undertook a general discussion in respect of the number of complaints generated as a result of planning matters.  Members acknowledged that there was a need to review ways in which processes could be made more transparent in order to improve public perception.

The Committee acknowledged that the Chairman of the Development Control Committee was unlikely to be aware of the volume of complaints received in respect of planning matters as a result on the tighter restrictions on access to information around standards complaints.  Consequently, it was agreed that it was appropriate to invite the Chairman of the Development Control Committee to the next meeting to discuss complaints and issues around the wider public perception of planning.

Report CSD21024

The report updated the Committee on a number of standards issues.

Work Programme and Matters Outstanding

Recognising that a large proportion of Code of Conduct Complaints related to planning matters it was agreed that the Chairman of the Development Control Committee and the Assistant Director for Planning should be invited to the next meeting of the Standards Committee on 15 July 2021.  It was agreed that the discussion should centre around the report of the Planning Advisory Service and the Council’s existing Planning Protocol.

A Member further requested that the report of the Planning Advisory Service be circulated to the Standards Committee for information.

LGA Draft Code of Conduct Consultation

It was recognised that the Council had only recently approved a compliant Code of Conduct.  Members agreed the LGA Code of Conduct should not be adopted at the current time however, it would be worth giving the matter further consideration over the course of the next municipal year in order to determine whether the LGA Code could be adopted for the new Council from 2022.

Publishing Complaints procedure on Website

A Member expressed concern that in the event of a councillor being taken through a formal investigation process there was no right of appeal without going through the High Court.  The Member suggested that there should always be a right of appeal without cost to the individual purse and the procedure should be amended to reflect this.  In response the Monitoring Officer highlighted that in reality the sanctions available were very limited – reprimand, removal from a committee, requirement to undertake training or removal of resources. Other than a differently constituted Sub-Committee it was difficult to introduce a process of appeal.  Members also noted that prior to sanctioning a councillor, the Standards Committee was required to seek the view of the Independent Person and this was an element of safeguard within the system.

Members suggested that the wording of Paragraph 3.3(i) should be amended to ensure that there was no risk of allegations demonstrating a pattern of behaviour being rejected.  The Monitoring Officer confirmed that the purpose of the criteria was to manage a chain complaint revisiting issues that had previously been investigated and found to have no substance.  Dealing with such complaints may not be a good use of officer resource.  The Committee noted that one of the reasons for the list was to address the mismatch between formal investigation and volume of complaints.  The Monitoring Officer reported that he had spent some time reviewing the historical complaints that had been received.  Throughout the history of the Standards Regime there had been three main means of dealing with the initial assessment of complaints – The Standards Board for England which was totally independent of Local Authorities, the Filtering Sub-Committees led by the Independent Members, and the present approach which was Officer led with support from the Independent Person.  When looking at the complaints dealt with totally independently of the Local Authority by the Standards Board for England,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13