Is our Parish clerk allowed to use public bias comments/foul language whilst in post?

Question

For more clarification on the question, our clerk hasn't actually done this in the meeting itself, but he is a journalist and has his own website, where he has used bias towards people in the locality and towards people of minority. There is one occasion during the death of the queen where he and the chairperson also came to speak to the local minister to inform him that the council wouldn't be involved in the agreed plans for Operation London Bridge(which was their request) because "religion doesn't reflect the community" although the thanksgiving service for the queen(their request) was instead attended by our local district councillor.

The area of bias i'm specifically asking about however is on his personal website which is publically connected to his journalism which has quite a number of bias comments and foul language.

Answer 1

Difficult to answer without having all of the matters in hand. You state bias, One persons bias is another persons truth and who decides?
Your clerk is an employee of the council and should have written into their contract boundaries of conduct expected. What they do outside of their duties is in a free country their business.( providing that they do not link their personal actions outside of council in any way to the council)

If the council feel that they have strayed into areas that might contravene their conditions of employment then there are laid down procedures the council must follow.

Comments

Agreed but if the Clerk and the Chair made a decision on behalf of the Parish Council and didn’t involve all Councillors that’s another matter

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Was "religion doesn't reflect the community" backed up by your 2021 Census data? Whilst the number of churchgoers is often small, there are usually a much larger number of people who hold religious faith. It's a bold claim to understand the beliefs of every resident of your parish!

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Thank you for your comments, i will try and address with clarity, so on the matter i'm specifcally addressing, is related to his personal website which is publically connected to his job on the local newspaper, which is read by people in the parish, whilst it is unlikely that the parish would have seen his website, for example he has called a local shop manager a (T)ango (W)hiskey (A)lpha (T)ango...(i'm not using that word because i feel it's a bit vulgar for a council representive). And has made rather bias comments about churchgoers on his website.
I would say that bias is very clear, epsecially if it comes under anything related to Equality Act 2010.
Whilst it is ok to have an opinion i think it is unwise to make such comments publically where it can be seen by the public especially being aware they would have family and friends that would no doubt see it. Though those comments on the website wasn't connected to his parish council job.
I am aware that they requested the local church to be open during the time of Operation London Bridge, and according to the document they gave the minister(which i have seen) it stated that the chair vice-chair and clerk would be on hand to volunteer to look after the book of condolences for the Queen and ensure that people laid the flowers in the correct place. However no one from the council offered any support contrary to what was agreed. Instead the local minister a 72 year old with health issues was expected to be there for the full 2 weeks, and only managed to round up some volunteers 2 days after(though it was mostly him and 1 other person) The Chairperson and clerk came on the following tuesday to say they wouldn't be involved in that operation due to religion supposedly not reflecting the community. I doubt they would have backed it up from the 2021 census data, and i was quite tempted to take a photo of the attendance for the thanksgiving service for the queen to send to the council because it was actually packed.
Hope i've clarified there.