Agenda item

To provide an update on local and national issues relating to ethical standards and to bring to the attention of Members any complaints or other problems within West Berkshire.

The Council considered a report (Agenda Item 12) which updated Members on local and national issues relating to ethical standards and drew attention to any complaints or other problems within West Berkshire.

MOTION: Proposed by Councillor Keith Chopping and seconded by Councillor Jeff Beck.

That the Council:

(1)       “notes the content of the report;

(2)       agrees to circulate the report to all Parish/Town Councils in the District for information.”

Councillor Keith Chopping in introducing the item reported that following the enactment of the Localism Act 2011 a number of changes were made to the Standards Regime. It was agreed that the Monitoring Officer would produce an annual report for the Governance and Ethics Committee and that it would be presented to Full Council at the Annual meeting. The report would also be circulated to all Town and Parish Councils. The report identified a number of key issues. He noted that one dispensation was granted during 2017/18. During 2017/18, 16 formal complaints were received by the Monitoring Officer. Fifteen of these complaints were about parish councillors and one complaint was about a district councillor. This was an increase on the number of complaints received in the previous year 2016/17 when only three complaints were received.  However, the figure represented only a slight increase on the average number of complaints received per annum since 2009/10.

Councillor Chopping reported that although there had been a significant rise in the number of complaints since the previous year, there had been a number of related complaints. Councillor Chopping highlighted that three of the five complaints received in quarter two related to issues arising at a parish council, all four complaints received in Quarter 3 pertained to the same incident and three of the complaints received in quarter 4 related to the same issue. No further action was taken on ten of the complaints following the initial assessment. One complaint was withdrawn, one complaint was referred for investigation and four of the complaints were still being processed.

Councillor Chopping reported that a hearing had taken place in January 2018 in respect of a complaint received in 2016/17 (NPC1/17) which had been subject to an investigation. It was resolved by the Governance and Ethics Committee that a number of breaches of the parish councils’ Code of Conduct had occurred.

Councillor Chopping drew Members’ attention to the fact that the number of gifts and hospitality invitations recorded by Members remained very low. He reiterated the comments made by the Monitoring Officer that the number of complaints received in respect of alleged breaches of the Members’ Code of Conduct during 2017/18 remained relatively low. It was therefore reasonable to conclude that standards of ethical conduct were high across West Berkshire at both District and at Parish / Town Council levels.

Councillor Jeff Beck explained that the role of the Governance and Ethics Committee was to keep Councillors ‘on the straight and narrow’. He thanked the Monitoring Officer and her colleagues for all the work they put into this area of work.

The Motion was put to the meeting and duly RESOLVED.