Independent Member:                                 Mr A Smith (Chairman)

Parish/Town Council Representative:     Cllr R House

District Council Representative:               Cllr Mrs E Purves

Monitoring Officer:                                       Mrs C Nuttall

Democratic Services Officer                      Mr D Williamson

There were no declarations of Interest.

In accordance with the Local Government Act 2000 all allegations of Member misconduct are confidential until the Review Sub-Committee decides otherwise.

Resolved:      That the meeting of the panel to discuss the allegations of Member misconduct (reference FC43R), be held in confidential session.

The Committee will assess any allegations that a Member has failed, or may

have failed, to comply with the Code of Conduct and either:

a) Refer the complaint to the Monitoring Officer for investigation;

b) Refer the complaint to another authority’s standards committee;

c) Refer the complaint to the Standards Board for England;

d) Take no action in respect of the complaint; or

e) Refer the complaint to the Monitoring Officer for action other than investigation that is conciliation, apology, training or any other appropriate

action.

FC43R

This matter related to a Parish Councillor.

Resolved:      That the subject member be provided with a summary of the details of the complaint.

The potential breaches of the Code of Conduct identified were:

Paragraph 5 – You must not conduct yourself in a manner which could reasonably be regarded as bringing your office or authority into disrepute

Paragraph 6 (a) – You must not use or attempt to use your position as a Member improperly to confer on or secure for yourself or any other person, an advantage or disadvantage

Resolved:      Referral of the complaint to the Monitoring Officer for other appropriate action:

That the Monitoring Officer be directed to offer a one-to-one training session to the subject member, with help from a member of the Standards Committee or Deputy Monitoring Officer.

Reason

The Review Sub-Committee thoroughly examined the complaint together with all the evidence and documents considered by the original Assessment Sub-Committee, in addition to a letter dated 25 August 2011 submitted by the complainant requesting that the matter be re-considered.

The Sub-Committee considered this information in conjunction with Standards for England guidance relating to paragraphs 2(1)(b), 5 and 6(a) of the Code of Conduct.

It was noted that the submissions by the complainant and the subject member were in conflict with regard to their perceptions of the interaction that, both agreed, did take place. The Sub-Committee noted that no hard, independent, evidence was offered to indicate what took place and felt that it was unlikely that any such evidence would be forthcoming from any investigation which would need to show, on the balance of probabilities, what actually took place between the complainant and the subject member.

The Sub-Committee also considered that the incident was not of a sufficiently serious nature to warrant an investigation as the situation on site appeared to get out of hand on both sides thereby frustrating a satisfactory outcome.

The Sub-Committee noted that the complainant’s perception was that the subject member was representing the Parish Council; and that the subject member had referred to her membership of the Parish Council during the incident. Whilst making no finding of fact, or apportioning blame, in the interests of public relations the Sub-Committee felt that it could be advantageous for the Monitoring Officer to offer a one-to-one session with the subject member to discuss the workings of the Code of Conduct.