Agenda and minutes

To remind Members of the need to record the existence and nature of any Personal, Disclosable Pecuniary or other interests in items on the agenda, in accordance with Members’ Code of Conduct.

Councillors Graham Bridgman and Chris Bridges declared an interest in Agenda Item 3, but reported that, as their interest was personal and not prejudicial or a disclosable pecuniary interest, they determined to remain to take part in the debate and vote on the matter.

Purpose: *

(Councillor Graham Bridgman declared a personal interest in Agenda item 3 by virtue of the fact that Stratfield Mortimer was within the Mortimer Ward for which he was a District Councillor and he was acquainted with the Subject Member, Complainant and the two witnesses. As his interest was personal and not prejudicial or a disclosable pecuniary interest he was permitted to take part in the debate and vote on the matter).

(Councillor Chris Bridges declared a personal interest in Agenda item 3 by virtue of the fact that he was a member of the neighbouring Parish Council. As his interest was personal and not prejudicial or a disclosable pecuniary interest he was permitted to take part in the debate).

The Committee considered the Investigator’s report (Agenda Item 3) concerning the complaint in respect of Councillor Christopher Lewis (Subject Member) NPC4/15 from Mr Mike Dennett (Complainant) which had been submitted on 12^th August 2015.

Sarah Clarke, the Legal Officer, stated that she had received a request from Councillor Graham Bridgman as to whether the Committee could have sight of two letters from the Subject Member dated 25^th September 2015 and 2^nd December 2015. The Legal Officer advised that these documents had been received outside of the five day rule and therefore could be considered if they were felt to be relevant. Councillor Bridgman had also asked for a copy of the covering e-mail dated 12^th July 2015 which had been referred to in the Investigating Officer’s report. However, as the Council had not received this e-mail, and the Investigating Officer did not have a copy of the said e-mail to hand, then it could not be made available to the Committee.

The Independent Investigator, Liz Howlett, introduced her report to the Committee:

The Investigating Officer stated that she had been asked by the Monitoring Officer at West Berkshire Council to investigate the following matters:

(1)       Did Councillor Lewis use threatening language towards the Chairman (Councillor Dennett) and the Vice-Chairman (Councillor Julian Earl) in his letter of 10^th July 2015?

(2)       Did the reference in the letter of 10^th July 2015 to stating points publicly on Facebook in relation to the cost of clerking amount to harassment of the Council and the Clerk?

(3)       Did the letter of 12^th July 2015 compound the issue by repeating the same points but, in addition, also make reference to unsubstantiated claims that the Parish Clerk had acted in a criminal manner?

(4)       Was there any evidence to justify the allegations of criminal behaviour?

Liz Howlett stated that it was important to focus on the complaint which had been submitted by Dr. Mike Dennett and the fact that there had been a lot of background prior to the complaint being submitted. The key issue was the tone and approach of one fellow Councillor towards others. Dr. Dennett had no issues with the criticisms around the processes and procedures in place at Stratfield Mortimer Parish Council and he had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.