Ticked off for rise in tit-for-tat spats

Code of conduct complaints under scrutiny

The Royal Borough’s monitoring officer has outlined an increase in the number of complaints against councillors in a report presented to council on Wednesday.

The monitoring officer reports on matters they believe to be illegal, maladministration, the conduct of councillors and officers, and the council’s constitution.

In the 2021/22 Monitoring Officer’s Annual Report, officer Emma Duncan warned that the culture and behaviour of councillors presents a ‘significant risk of governance failure’.

“This year we have had three times as many complaints as most other local authorities,” said Ms Duncan.

The total number of complaints received was 79, up from 36 the previous year.

However, the majority of complaints ‘do not meet the threshold for investigation’, wrote Ms Duncan. Four investigations have taken place.

The volume of complaints means that officer capacity is ‘often stretched’.

In one instance, one complaint was made against 22 members of the council – accounting for 22 of the 79 complaints. This was a complaint against the controversial Borough Local Plan (BLP).

There were also 18 complainants making the same complaint against one councillor.

Though 58 of the total number of complaints were lodged by members of the public, 10 complaints were made by the Conservatives, two from the Lib Dems and eight from the independents.

“The authority doesn’t have the resources to investigate lots of complaints,” said Ms Duncan.

“If we had lots of serious complaints we would have to – but most of them have been relatively minor. Personal issues, quite often, motivated by antipathy from both sides.”

However, Cllr John Baldwin (Lib Dem, Belmont) said he ‘didn’t accept’ that members were using the code of conduct complaints process in a tit-fortat manner.

“I’m probably one of the most complained-about members of the council that’s been sitting since 2019 and I have made one complaint,” he said.

“I personally resent the implication that all members use the Code of Conduct for political point-scoring. It’s not the case.”

He asked Ms Duncan to draw a distinction between backand-forth on social media and use of the Code of Conduct complaints process.

Ms Duncan stressed that officers have definitely seen a connection between these two processes.

“We can see the relationship between two members deteriorating [online] and we know that one will make a complaint – and shortly after we will receive another,” she said.

“In these circumstances, it does feel like I’m less in public service and more like I’m in the playground.”

On the flipside, Ms Duncan that in the past three months there have been no complaints from councillors against other councillors, a sign that they are ‘getting to grips’ with how to use social media to interact with each other appropriately.

Leader of the council Andrew Johnson said an area that still needs ‘some work’ is how elected members are interacting with political activists who are ‘badgering’ them on social media.