Agenda item

Members gave consideration to a report and associated Appendices which presented a revised Members’ Code of Conduct and Operating Procedures for early consultation purposes, following it having initially been considered by the Standards Sub-Committee.

A summary of the main comments made to date and points for further consideration which had been raised by either Standards Sub-Committee or the Governance and Audit Committee Chairs briefing were also shared with the Members.

Members were invited to comment on the first draft document, after which, all comments made would be collated and re-submitted to the Standards Sub-Committee for further consideration.

Lengthy debate ensued and a number comments and suggestions for further consideration were made.

Some considered the definition of Leadership needed to be more specific, however Officers advised the wording was taken direct from the Nolan principle to which it related.

It was also felt that Ward Members should not be involved in complaints if they served on the same Parish Council as the Councillor complained about.

The note contained in Section 3 of the Code was welcomed and considered of importance.  This acted as a reminder that the Code should not be used for politically motivated complaints or personal vendettas.

It was suggested that the relevant person needed to be extended further to include all family members and to reflect that families were not all of a traditional set up.  It was further suggested that if a prescriptive list could not be included, a request asking Members to make a reasonable judgement be included.

Fundamentally all Members agreed that the document needed to be comprehensive yet easy to understand and easy to apply.

Referring to Appendix C, the operating procedures, the Vice Chairman made reference to a case she had been involved with and as such wished the following points to be addressed: -

·      A closure date be included, complaints must come to a conclusion

·      All initial meetings needed to be minuted and needed to be fair

·      Ward Member involvement should be retained in some guise and a number of suggestions had been made.

·      Complaints should be time limited (ie) a person should not be able to claim, say 3 years after the event, Officers to consider a sensible limit

·      Each step in the process needed clarity

Other comments made included: -

·      Including Reference to Social Media

·      Making clear that intimidation of anyone, not just those involved in the complaint, would not be accepted

·      Ensuring there was provision in the Standing Orders to remove persons from the meeting

·      A request to quantify further respect.

There was also a view that the Code had a very simplistic view of Private and Public Life.  However this was not how the public saw it and indication was sought as to whether the Code could address this point.  The Monitoring Officer advised that the law gave Members a right to a private life and this position must be maintained.  By way of assurance, the Committee were advised of how complaints of such a nature, despite being outside of the Code, were currently addressed and would continue to be so.  It was important that communities had confidence in their elected representatives.

All were in agreement that robust training for all would be required if the new Code was adopted.

RESOLVED that:

(a)            having reviewed the revised Code of Conduct and Operating           Procedures the Committee’s comments as detailed above, be                                                 noted; and

(b)            the Committee’s comments be collated and shared with the             Standards Sub-Committee prior to the document being released                                             for wider consultation.