Fall in number of public complaints about councillors
MEMBERS of the public have made 15 complaints about Kirklees councillors in the last six months.
One was a multiple complaint relating to six councillors.
There was a further complaint against a councillor by a fellow member of the council, making 16 in total between September 30 and March 29, the current period under review.
That’s a drop compared to the previous period when the council’s monitoring officer received 44 complaints about 12 Kirklees members.
There were also complaints about three town and parish councillors during the period from March 11 to September 29. No recent complaints relate to town or parish members.
All 16 new complaints relate to alleged breaches of the council’s Code of Conduct.
A report to go before the council’s Standards Committee next week reveals that 13 of the 16 complaints - all anonymised - were “not progressed” after the initial assessment process and one was not pursued by the complainant after further information was requested.
The remaining two complaints are described as “relatively recent” and are currently being investigated.
The nature of the complaints concern:
behaviour at meetings, the majority relating to planning committees
an allegation of an undeclared conflict of interest
the behaviour of a member during lockdown
The report says: “There have been a number of complaints that relate to behaviour at meetings that perhaps would not have been made if those meetings were not being conducted virtually.
“Members at committees, such as planning, are possibly forgetting that, unlike in the council chamber, they remain on camera throughout the entire meeting, which can give rise to their behaviour being scrutinised in a way that would not have happened before the pandemic.”
Over the last year the council has also received three complaints about elected members being in breach of regulations.
Despite the low number they were deemed to be “of sufficient concern” to prompt the sending to all members of a reminder about the regulations in place “and the need to comply with these”.