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Day 6 as a parish councillor and I find you can do (almost) anything as a councillor with impunity

lindaderrick6


After 7 months of waiting I finally got a response to my complaints about the Chairman of Hughenden Parish Council from the Monitoring Officer. This is my response to her. I think it is self- explanatory.


“Dear Ms Caprio


Thank you for your e-mail of 16 May giving your decision on my complaints against Cllr Nicholls. You thank me for my patience. However, I'm afraid I don't deserve your thanks - I have been very impatient but could do nothing about the 7 months it has taken for you to decide not to investigate. I note that you do not apologise for the delays nor explain why they have taken place.


You have decided not to investigate three complaints and earlier decided a fourth complaint was not eligible. The reason for these decisions was the same for all the complaints i.e. that the substance of the matters I complained about "were matters concerning the business of the Parish Council and not standard issues that relate to the behaviour or conduct of an individual councillor". In general, you advise that I should "direct my complaints against the parish council as a corporate body."


I understand what you say but I fundamentally disagree with your conclusions: in fact, I find them deeply disturbing.


What you are saying, for example, is that I could deliberately provide completely inaccurate and misleading information to my fellow councillors and the public at a council meeting and this would not be regarded by the Monitoring Officer as a breach of the Code of Conduct relating to my behaviour as an individual councillor but a matter concerning the business of the Council. In short, I can lie with impunity.


Or, for example, as a councillor, I could deliberately undermine a complaint made under the grievance or disciplinary Council procedures but, according to the Monitoring Officer, this could not be a matter of complaint about my individual behaviour but a matter of complaint to the Council.


Or, as a councillor, I could be aware of unlawful or dishonest behaviour in the Council and ignore it. This would be considered by the Monitoring Officer as a matter for the Parish Council as a corporate body and not a matter of individual behaviour, despite the Code of Conduct requiring councillors to "actively promote and robustly support the principles of [honesty and integrity etc] and be willing to challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs. "


I am left wondering exactly why we have a Code of Conduct when practically all the actions of councillors are seemingly judged to be matters of corporate responsibility. What does a councillor have to do before it becomes a matter of individual behaviour?


Or to put it another way, how does anyone call their councillor to account? How outrageous can I be before you decide to investigate my behaviour? Not to mention of course that there are no sanctions against councillors where complaints are upheld.


Put this together with the 7 months it has taken you to decide not to investigate, then you will excuse me saying that it looks as though I can get away with blue murder. I will bear that in mind.


You say that I could take up my complaints with the Parish Council as a corporate body. You suggest for example asking for information via a freedom of information request. I have been there and done that many times - in fact I wear the t-shirt. It takes months and enormous amounts of effort. And, as you could see from previous e-mails, I finally got the copy of the advice I requested by reading it my car and taking photos of all 18 pages on my mobile like some rather incompetent undercover agent. You say I could ask the Clerk to resolve issues. It was the Clerk who refused to provide a copy to take home.


You suggest I take complaints up formally via the Council's complaints procedure. I've been there and done that too. I eventually received two public apologies from the Council and two from the Clerk for them making a mess of the procedures - but the Council did not address my complaint.


You suggest taking up my complaints with the Local Government Ombudsman. I'm afraid that, except under very specific circumstances, the Ombudsman does not cover parish councils. Finally, you suggest I go to the High Court for a judicial review, I somehow suspect that legal aid would not cover this and, as you know, judicial reviews cost tens of thousands of pounds.


So, as I have said before, parish councils are a law unto themselves.


I am afraid the outcome of this lack of accountability is an increasing lack of good governance and good behaviour. We see it at all levels of government. However, Hughenden Parish Council has a particularly poor reputation and it does not help if the Monitoring Officer fails to provides any effective accountability against councillors who do not comply with the principles of public life.


Moreover, it brings the role of the Monitoring Officer into disrepute.


Kind Regards


Linda Derrick

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