Agenda and minutes

To approve the record of the meeting held on 21 October 2013.

The record of the meeting held on 21 October 2013 were agreed and signed by the Chairman as correct. 

To receive apologies for absence. 

There were none. 

The Chairman will announce any late items which do not appear on the main agenda but which he/she has agreed should be considered by reason of special circumstances to be specified in the report. 

There were none. 

A member need only disclose at any meeting the existence of a disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI) in a matter to be considered at that meeting if that DPI has not been entered on the disclosable pecuniary interests register maintained by the Monitoring Officer.

A member disclosing a DPI at a meeting must thereafter notify the Monitoring Officer in writing of that interest within 28 days from the date of disclosure at the meeting.

A member may not participate in a discussion of or vote on any matter in which he or she has a DPI (both those already registered and those disclosed at the meeting) and must withdraw from the room during such discussion/vote.

Members may choose to voluntarily disclose a DPI at a meeting even if it is registered on the council’s register of disclosable pecuniary interests but there is no legal requirement to do so.

In line with the training provided to members by the Monitoring Officer members will also need to consider bias and pre-determination in certain circumstances and whether they have a conflict of interest or should otherwise leave the room for Code reasons. 

Disclosable pecuniary interests

There were none.

Other interests

There were none.

This report details a recent complaint made to the Local Government Ombudsman about the Council’s handling of a complaint against a Member under its Councillor Conduct Committee procedures. 

The Monitoring Officer introduced the report detailing a recent complaint made to the Local Government Ombudsman about the Council’s handling of a complaint against a Member under its Councillor Conduct Committee procedures.  The Local Government Ombudsman’s final decision was to complete the investigation as no evidence of fault was found in the way the Council considered the complaint about the Councillor’s conduct.

Decision:

The Committee noted the report.

This report summarises the content of the report at agenda item 7 and appendices which, in the opinion of the proper officer, contain exempt information within one of the categories in Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. It is a matter for the Committee to determine whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of documents. 

Resolved:

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the exempt material relating to agenda item 7 because consideration of these matters in public would disclose information falling within Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 as specified in agenda item 6,and, in all the circumstances of the case, the Committee considers that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

The committee is requested to consider a complaint regarding Members of a Parish Council that has been received by the Monitoring Officer. 

The Committee considered a complaint regarding Members of a Parish Council that had been received by the Monitoring Officer on 8 November 2013. 

The Committee noted that the complaint related to events that must have occurred in 2011 and 2012 when a “fun day” had been held and therefore were likely to be outside the time frame agreed in the Council’s complaint assessment criteria unless there were extenuating circumstances. Members considered all the information provided with the complaint including the report of the external auditor and the minutes of the extraordinary meeting of the Parish Council. Members noted that three of the Parish Councillors had now resigned and that the complaint letter specifically said that the remaining Councillor had no involvement with the finances of the fun days in 2011 and 2012. They noted that the Parish Council had commissioned an external audit and examination of financial information relating to the fun days and appeared to have taken into account the findings and were following the recommendations as set out by the auditor.

Decisions:

a)     The Committee decided to take no further action.

b)     The Committee agreed that the Chairman should write to the complainant Parish Council to confirm that the Committee welcomed the approach the Parish Council had latterly taken in seeking an audit investigation and implementing its findings.

          Reason for decisions:

The reason for the decisions was that the complaint related to events more than six months ago and so was outside the assessment criteria agreed timescale for dealing with complaints and there were no extenuating circumstances.