Agenda item

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report on the complaint alleging that Councillor James Cartwright had breached the Authority’s Code of Conduct.

He reminded the Sub-Committee that, at its meeting held on 24 November 2015, it had agreed that the allegation be referred to the Monitoring Officer for investigation (Minute 19 refers).

The Monitoring Officer drew Members’ attention to the report by the Investigating Officer on the allegation at Essential Reference Paper ‘C’.  The Investigating Officer had concluded that there had been a breach of the Authority’s Code of Conduct by Councillor Cartwright.

In accordance with the approved complaints process, the Investigating Officer’s report was submitted to the Sub-Committee for it to conduct a hearing.  The Sub-Committee would then determine whether Councillor Cartwright had breached the Authority’s Code of Conduct and, if so, what action, if any, should be taken.

The Chairman outlined the hearing procedure.

The Monitoring Officer reminded the Sub-Committee that the Investigating Officer had concluded that Councillor Carwright’s comments on his twitter account referring to a number of individuals as “thick” and “illiterate” had breached the code as he had failed to treat the individuals concerned with respect.

The hearing procedure was duly followed.

The Sub-Committee endorsed the Investigating Officer’s view that Councillor J Cartwright had breached the Authority’s Code of Conduct in that he had “…failed to treat people with respect”.  The Sub-Committee agreed that a letter be sent to Councillor Cartwright confirming that he had breached the Authority’s Code of Conduct in terms of failing to treat people with respect by referring to a number of them on his twitter account as “thick” and “illiterate”.  The Sub-Committee also determined that:

·                        Council be invited to pass a formal motion of censure against Councillor Cartwright, and

·                        Councillor Cartwright be required to attend social media training provided by the Authority within one month of the date of the Standards Sub-Committee meeting (i.e. by 28 February 2016) and that should he fail to do so the Council’s Conservative Political Group, of which he was a member, be requested to remove him from any seats to which he had been appointed to on committees in accordance with the wishes of that political group until such time as the required training had been satisfactorily concluded.

RESOLVED – that in relation to the complaint now detailed that the District Councillor concerned had breached the Authority’s Code of Conduct:

(A)           Council be invited to pass a formal motion of censure against Councillor Cartwright, and

(B)           Councillor Cartwright be required to attend social media training provided by the Authority within one month of the date of the Standards Sub-Committee meeting (i.e. by 28 February 2016) and that should he fail to do so the Council’s Conservative Political Group, of which he is a member, be requested to remove him from any seats to which he had been appointed to on committees in accordance with the wishes of that political group until such time as the required training had been satisfactorily concluded.