‘Lord Mayor’s car parked illegally’, committee told

DOZENS of complaints were made against Birmingham City Council members last year, including one claim that the Lord Mayor’s car was parked illegally.

There were 31 initial complaints between April 2017 and March this year, according to a report for the council’s standards committee.

While the majority were dismissed, two have been progressed to independent investigations.

Six of the cases were not followed up because the complainant did not fill in a formal document.

Among those was an allegation made in July 2017 that the Lord Mayor’s car was illegally parked, while in another incident it was claimed a councillor blocked a resident from attending a ward meeting.

Out of the remaining 25 cases taken forward, 12 related to ‘councillor behaviour’ ranging from abuse of power by a chairman in a meeting to sharing confidential information.

A further six were concerned with ‘inappropriate’ use of social media.

Officers determined that there had been no code of conduct breach in 19 instances.

One of the reports was dismissed as a duplicate, leaving five to go forward to a ‘second stage’ investigation to be looked at independently.

They have since been consolidated into two cases which remain confidential together with the identity of the councillor in question. However, it has been confirmed the complaints were lodged by fellow councillors.

Concerning the two outstanding matters, the standards committee report stated: “These cases were originally put on hold as a result of attempts to achieve resolution by other means.

“However, these attempts have ultimately proved unsuccessful.

“These cases are now going forward for a more detailed investigation.”

Rob Connelly, acting director of governance, told the committee that all complaints were analysed to assess whether any specific training was required which could be rolled out to all members.