Allegations of a charity being put at risk, discriminatory, inappropriate or insulting language, misuse of council resources and postal vote handling are among 24 complaints made about Peterborough City councillors since February.
The update has been prepared by Neil McArthur, director of legal and governance and monitoring officer. He will present his report to the constitution and ethics committee on July 29.
He won’t be naming names – yet at least – since he will remind the committee that they have previously agreed that complaints should be reported in an anonymous way “until such time as a breach of the code of conduct is found as part of the complaints process”.
He says that since the committee last met, he had received 24 new complaints relating to city councillors.
“Five of those complaints have been either been resolved amicably after the involvement of the monitoring officer and the provision of information to the complainant, or the complainant has chosen not to take the matter further,” he says.
In terms of ongoing investigations, in summary:
- One complaint involves an allegation that the financial stability of a charity was put at risk.
- One complaint relates to comments made at a full council meeting
- One complaint relates to a letter sent to another councillor
- Seven complaints relate to allegations of discriminatory, inappropriate or insulting language, or gestures
- One complaint relates to an alleged GDPR data breach and non-response to complaint
- Six complaints relate to impropriety arising from attendance at an event
- One complaint alleges the misuse of council resources
- One complaint relates to postal vote handling
“There are currently no new complaints in relation to parish councillors,” he says.
Mr McArthur says the process for dealing with conduct complaints requires him to consult the Independent Person (an outside lay member of the committee) following an initial assessment and before any decisions are taken as to what if any further action is considered appropriate.
He says this could involve the appointment of an investigator and, following receipt of the investigator’s report, whether to refer the matter for a hearing.
Mr McArthur says that regular reporting of both quantities and substance of complaints “will help the committee gain a better understanding of the effectiveness of current procedures and how well the Code of Conduct is being observed across both the council and parish councils in its area.
“This will inform future decisions about what training may be necessary to ensure the requirements of the code are being met”.
