Disparging Comments During Public Participation

Question

The last FC, I was called a petulant child and after that I totally stopped listening. Another councillor was also insulted. Six minutes of comments about he and I. When we had a Locum, it was stopped. Is there anything that can be done.
Also, the former mayor told me to Shut Up during FC and a month ago the current mayor's husband who is also a councillor also told me to Shut Up and nothering was done even when I noted that it was unacceptable. Is there anything I can do or say? The Locum would step in but out current officers do nothing.

Answer 1

A Code of Conduct complaint seems in order.

Answer 2

It is the chairman's responsibility to address unacceptable behaviour by members of the public during public participation. Remind your chair to read the appropriate section of the standing orders. If the chair does not address the matter, you may ask the chair, or if the chair fails to do so, you may propose a motion that the individual be no longer heard, which requires a simple majority of votes.

As an aside, six minutes is more than most councils allow for a member of the public to speak.

Answer 3

The public should be controlled by the Chair but if they don’t you can’t really lodge a complaint because they are incompetent 

With regards to fellow Councillors this case seems to indicate that quite robust language can be used at meetings 

https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2021/2014.html

Comments

Robust language is one thing, but the standing orders state that a councillor may only interrupt another for a point of order.

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Dave you are a Clerk I am a Councillor and we clearly sing from the same hymn sheet but we both know that due to lack of enforcement Standing Orders are considered optional not mandatory by a lot of Parish Councils including my own.
Even when I raised a serious breach of our Standing Orders the vast majority of my fellow councillors remain silent and presumably think I'm being pedantic
I should imagine the vast majority of councillors never bother to read them let alone understand them

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I consider it an important part of my role to remind members of the content of their standing orders and to encourage them to read them. Whilst on the one hand the standing orders impose restrictions, they also provide the safety net when things go wrong. By regular reference to the standing orders during meetings, my councillors have learned that they matter and will often preface a question with "Do the standing orders permit us to...?"

Keep chipping away at that wall!