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A series of complaints were made about a parish council, including one from a current councillor about defamatory comments made at a meeting., These complaints culminated in an independent review requested by the Monitoring Officer. The review, while complimenting the council on its policies and procedures, made a range of recommendations with a monitoring timetable.   Three months on none of the recommendations have been addressed and the report has not yet been published. The Chairman has now made a public statement indicating that the original complaints were unjustified, and that attempts were being made to discredit the council and to bring it into disrepute. The statement was not authorised by council members at a council meeting.

As the 'complaining' councillor can be identified from the report there may be a Code of Conduct issue, as the council should not do anything that compromises, or is likely to compromise, the impartiality or the integrity of those who work for, or on behalf of, the Authority. My questions are:

1. Did the Chair have the authority to take this action?                                                                                                                   2. Does the action constitute a breach of the Code of Conduct?                                                                                                       3. If so should it be a 'new' complaint or should the Monitoring Officer be requested to review the position?
by (1.2k points)

1 Answer

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Q1: No

Q2 Yes very much so if he is garnering an advantage over you or others.

Q3. Maybe ask the monitoring officer to look at it again as this is ongoing internal problem

Don't these bullying,  dictatorial people just drive you mad? I have found our monitoring officer is 'toothless' and really is little point bothering with him. The only way to get change, from my experience from the good people on this site, is to vote them off; but  ours chair is so intimidating that the decent folk just can't handle him and have resigned leaving the clique to rule; in any way they feel
by (1.2k points)

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