Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Brake, Howcroft-Scott and Pearce.

To approve the record of the meeting held on 8 May 2025.

The record of the meeting held on 8 May was agreed by the Committee and signed by the Chairperson as correct.

The Chairperson 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.

Members are invited to disclose any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Significant Interests in accordance with the Member Code of Conduct. Guidance on this is set out in agenda item 4.

Disclosable pecuniary interests

There were none.

Other significant interests (OSIs)

There were none.

Other interests

There were none.

This report summarises the content of agenda item 6, which, in the opinion of the proper officer, contains 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. 

That the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the exempt material relating to agenda item 6 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 5,and, in all the circumstances of the case, the Committee considered that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information. 

The Monitoring Officer has received a complaint under the Council’s Code of Conduct for elected Members and it was presented to this Committee to determine what action, if any, to take. The Committee resolved that an investigation should take place. This report sets out the findings of that investigation.

Discussion:

At the start of the meeting the Monitoring Officer (MO) advised the Committee to hold a short adjournment which the Committee agreed to and therefore the meeting was adjourned for approximately 20 minutes.

The MO referred to representation that had been received from Councillor Spalding (the subject member), requesting that consideration of the report be deferred due to personal circumstances and the Committee carefully considered the supporting documentation he provided as part of his request. The Committee also took into account the impact on the complainant in further delaying consideration of the report and after deliberations the Committee decided to proceed with the hearing.

The MO then introduced the report which provided the outcome of an investigation into a complaint that Councillor Spalding may have breached the Member Code of Conduct through the manner in which he had handled a matter he became involved in as Ward Councillor.

Councillor Spalding and the complainant had been invited to the meeting to address the Committee under its procedures for dealing with complaints about Councillor Conduct, however neither had attended. 

Before reaching a decision on this matter the Committee also considered the views of an Independent Person, in accordance with Section 28 of the Localism Act 2011, which were set out at section 5 of the report.

Decisions

1)     The Committee agreed the following findings of fact:

a)    That Councillor Spalding was acting as a Councillor during his correspondence, signing off emails as Councillor and using Medway Council letter headed paper, therefore the Code of Conduct applied.

b)    That the email exchanges (provided by both Councillor Spalding and the complainant) provided evidence of the correspondence between the two on this matter and that during the investigation, there was no denial of the emails being sent.

c)     That the Deputy Monitoring Officer had explored the opportunity of an informal resolution via an apology to the complainant, which Councillor Spalding had refused to provide.

d)    That to date Councillor Spalding had denied any wrong doing.

2)     The Committee agreed that Councillor Spalding had breached the Code of Conduct, specifically citing the following paragraph of the code, which stated:

“2.1    You must:

i)            not conduct yourself in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing the Council or your position into disrepute

ii)           not bully or harass any person (including specifically any Council employee)

(Note: bullying may be characterised as: offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour; or an abuse or misuse of power in a way that intends to undermine, humiliate, criticise unfairly or injure someone. Harassment may be characterised as unwanted conduct which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for an individual.)”

The Committee referenced the following contents from correspondence sent by Councillor Spalding, as being particularly contra to the above paragraph of the Code:

·     “Closing the nursery down and walking away because you are now faced with having to answer some awkward questions and provide information that may  ...  view the full minutes text for item 211.