Issue - meetings

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer submitted a report that updated Members of the Committee on the standards complaints that had been received during the last six months.

Members were referred to the anonymised complaints detailed in the table at paragraph 2.4 in the report, and this included a summary under the action taken column.

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services said that a replacement link had been sent out where one link was not accessible. Members were advised that Officers had taken on board what was suggested at the last meeting in respect of withdrawn complaints being included in the report with an explanation of where a complaint had been discontinued.

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services welcomed any questions. Councillor Ian Hunt asked if it was possible to know who had made the complaints, i.e., if it was a councillor or the public.

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services said that he was happy to give that update, and he updated Members in respect of whether each of the complaints had been made by a councillor or by a member of the public.

The Chair asked if a councillor was informed if a complaint had been judged to not be a matter that would be addressed by the standards regime. The Head of Legal and Democratic Services said that the most regular occurrence of a complaint coming forward that wasn’t a standards matter was where a member of the public was unhappy with their councillor in terms of how they were responding, or not responding to correspondences such as e-mail and phone calls.

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services said complaints regarding displeasure about a councillor’s responsiveness was not a standards complaint. He summarised the advice he gave out in such circumstances and said that he would, out of courtesy, contact the councillor and mention the contact from the constituent and request that the councillor respond.

Members were advised that regarding any other form of complaint, the Monitoring Officer would have to take a view on it in terms of whether the Member needed to be informed. The Head of Legal and Democratic Services said that there were examples where there was a benefit to talking to a councillor to see if a matter could be resolved separately.

The Chair thanked the Head of Legal and Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer for his report. It was moved by Councillor Clements and seconded by Councillor Cox, that the recommendation detailed in the report be approved. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, this motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that (A) the report be received; and

(B)   any observations be passed on to the Head of Legal and Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer.