The Very Extraordinary Meeting of Hughenden Parish Council on 1 June

16 June 2021

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This is a factual account of HPC’s Extraordinary Meeting on 1st June. For now, I am going to make no comments.

First up, at item 4, was my attempt to get the draft minutes of the meeting in May amended so they would accurately record what I said. I’ve described that unsuccessful battle in my blog below of 5 June.

Item 5 was the approval of the assets register. I had pointed out at the previous Council meeting that the Council couldn’t approve the assets register, as proposed, because the register did not include the Council’s land assets. Council had reluctantly agreed to set up this extraordinary meeting so that the land assets could be included and the register approved lawfully. And that’s what Council did. No-one thanked me for pointing out the mistake and making sure Council got it right.

Item 7 was an update on progress with transferring land from HPC to Hughenden Community Support Trust, a transfer which I think is unlawful. I had asked the previous week if we could have a written update so I could consider the item beforehand.

But no reply.

However, I knew from elsewhere that solicitors representing either HPC or HCST had submitted applications to the Land Registry to register four leases for the land.

I also knew that the Land Registry had cancelled these applications because, it said, the landlord shown in the leases was HCST and HCST was not the registered proprietor; the registered proprietor was HPC. And, as I and other residents have been saying for months, HPC can’t lease land from itself.

HPC pays the legal fees for the solicitors representing HCST as well as the solicitors representing HPC – legal fees amounting to tens of thousands of pounds.

I was concerned that HPC might be paying for the legal work in submitting the applications when obviously the solicitors had made a mistake. So, I asked which firm of solicitors was doing what work on the transfer.

The Clerk said she didn’t know but said she would find out. (Despite a reminder, no reply.)

I also said I was shocked to see an invoice for about £3500 from Blaser Mills, HCST’s solicitor, which was completely un-itemised. It was therefore impossible to see what the invoice covered and check it.

After I queried the invoice, it had been sent back to HCST with a request that it should be itemised. (The invoice was later returned with some more information but still not itemised)

No other councillor asked any questions.

Item 8 covered two issues. The first was an item “to consider recommendations relating to the general maintenance ITT” and the second an item “to consider if a breach of the Code of Conduct has occurred and to consider next steps”.

Council was asked to approve these items being discussed in closed session.

In my blog below of 10 June, I explained that, if I had not specifically asked, I would have been unaware that I was the subject of this alleged breach, and unaware that Council was to receive an anonymous report concluding I was guilty.

I had pointed out that HPC’s Complaints Procedures say anyone complaining about a councillor’s conduct should be advised to make their complaint to BC’s Monitoring Officer. I had therefore asked for this item to be removed from the agenda. I had also asked who had written the report and why it had been circulated for discussion.

No reply.

So at the meeting I asked again under what procedure this item was on the agenda.

No reply.

Council then voted for both items to be discussed in confidential session. I voted against.

The Chairman then asked the public to clear the meeting. Two people remained who the Chairman introduced as employees of Bucks and Milton Keynes Association of Local Councils (BALC). He said he had invited them to the meeting to give Council independent advice on the breach of the Code of Conduct. This was news to me.

I asked the Chairman whether he was also the Chairman of the Executive Committee of BALC and whether this Committee was in practice the employer of the two BALC employees. The Chairman confirmed this was correct.

I asked the Chairman whether he thought there was a conflict of interest in asking the two BALC employees to give independent advice. He did not think there was.

I asked the Clerk if she had worked for one of the invited BALC employees at BALC until last July when she was appointed as HPC’s Clerk. She confirmed this. I asked her if she thought there was a conflict of interest in her previous line manager providing independent advice to a Council on this issue. She did not think so.

The Council then voted for them to stay. I voted against.

Council then considered item 8.1 “to consider recommendations relating to the general maintenance ITT” which was commercially sensitive.

I pointed out that the two BALC employees should not be present for this item and reluctantly the Chairman asked them to leave.

Again, I had asked for the papers for this item well in advance.

No reply.

Councillors were given the papers just before the meeting, I couldn’t understand them and finally had to ask if Council was being asked to take a decision. The Clerk confirmed that Council was being asked to award a commercial contract which had been put out to tender.

I pointed out that there was no resolution on the agenda and, in order to take a decision, Standing Orders required a motion to be submitted 5 clear days before a Council meeting. I also pointed out that the necessary information for councillors to take any decision on this issue had only been provided just before the start of the meeting and I still did not understand what I was being asked to decide.

The Chairman said it was alright and he asked for a vote to be taken

I repeated that there was no resolution on the agenda and Council could not take a decision. I said I was sure that the Clerk could look up Standing Orders on her computer and eventually the Clerk confirmed I was right.

Other Councillors asked if a decision was urgent and were told it was not. Council then agreed to defer the decision to the next Council meeting a week hence. One Councillor said they would have been happy to make a decision on the contract without complying with Standing Orders if the next meeting had been any later.

No-one thanked me for ensuring Council complied with Standing Orders when awarding a commercial contract.

Finally we got to item 8.2, “to consider if a breach of the Code of Conduct has occurred and to consider next steps”.

The two employees of BALC returned to the meeting and I asked yet again under what procedures the Council was considering this item.

No answer.

The Chairman said he wanted to ask other councillors for their views and, if I asked about the procedures again, he would seek to remove me from the meeting.

One of the other councillors then asked the two BALC employees about the correct procedures for handling complaints about a councillor. They said the complainants should be advised to put their complaints to the Monitoring Officer.

The Chairman then said a number of residents had put their complaints to the Monitoring Officer and he read out a prepared statement which he said he was going to send to the Monitoring Officer. I think his statement said that he was supporting the complaints of the residents. I asked for a copy of the statement and the Chairman declined to provide one.

The Chairman then encouraged other councillors to complain about my behaviour to the Monitoring Officer.

And we all went home. I reflected on my experience as a councillor so far and I will blog about my reflections next time.