I am prohibited indefinitely from meeting or communicating directly with the clerk or R.F.O., how do I challenge this?

Question

I am a parish cllr, elected May 2023.

The other Cllr's have decided that all my emails to the council employees will be vetted.

 I am not to contact, talk, or meet with the clerk or R.F.O.

There had been a complaint that I was being pedantic (my word) in a conversation with the R.F.O. when trying to establish access to the accounting records during the annual inspection of accounts period.

There has not been a complaint about a breach of the Cllr code of conduct.

Answer 1

Prohibited by whom? Was this via a complaint made against you through the council grievance procedure and placed before the council for discussion and ruling? If so what were the grounds for such a conclusion? Who decided and what opportunity did you have to "defend"your actions and present your side of things? Many questions need answering to get to whether procedures were followed to make a case for the MO to adjudicate and find fault. It is not within the councils powers to "punish" an elected councillor or hold court over them kangaroo or other. If they feel you have broken the code of conduct then it must be placed in the hands of the MO with ALL of the evidence to substantiate the charge. This then gives you equal opportunity to see the presented evidence and challenge, with counter evidence the claims.

Answer 2

That’s a load of old pony mate.

Answer 3

As a Clerk/RFO of 30 years standing (now retired) I used to encourage/welcome questions about my accounting records from my councillors during the public inspection period and otherwise.

Answer 4

I was elected in May 2022.  I have a similar issue in that I have been accused of asking too many questions.  I have fallen foul of the Clerk whose Minutes I have questioned since they present me as difficult etc (I am one of 2 women in a council of 10 men and the other woman rarely comes.  He has filed a complaint against me me re bulling harassment intimidation malice insulting.

I need to know if minutes if not corrected and voted as a true record by the councillors present become a true record.  Or is it unless they can be proven otherwise?   The Clerk has refused to make corrections to the Minutes where I have noted they need correction to make them accurate, and the meeting outvotes or refuses to second nearly every amendment I present so it cannot be discussed and votes against me anyway.  So I feel unable to vote for the Minutes as a true record.

Comments

Overly defensive of suggested amendments / corrections to minutes is a classic behavioural trait of the overly possessive passive aggressive employee seeking to establish / maintain / increase group dominance often complimented by ostracisation, exclusion and aggression towards the perceived threat.
You have to stick to your guns. You are a Cllr to maintain YOUR standards not to be assimilated into someone else’s.
It sounds like you are unfortunate to have an apathetic or dominated wider council membership.
Let me guess, vacancies on the council, long standing members returned time and again after uncontested elections, lack of corporate public engagement and a general attitude of superiority rather than duty?

Nothing you mentioned is in any way rare, unique or particularly gender specific (although that could be a complicating factor.)

Be true to yourself, if you can’t bring the council along with you then seek to spread your message OUTSIDE rather than inside the council. Livestream your meetings, call for names votes, place as much info as poss directly into the public domain.
Stay with it if you can - can’t say it’ll get significantly better in the short term but it will get a whole lot worse if you give up.  Be cool.

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Thank you your reply was really depressing.  Parish councils ae supposed to be less constrained than Borough, District  or county councils and yet everywhere they seem to be in chains!    That to me is shocking.

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I had exactly the same treatment and self reported the complaint to the MO but to be honest if the other Councillors support the Clerk you are out on a limb
Quite often Councillors live in terror of Clerks
Recently during the public session of my local PC the same Clerk accused the Chair of lying. At least three people recorded the meeting
After the end of the previous meeting she launched a vile attack on an absent Councillor
At Borough or County level she would have been suspended on the spot

Answer 5

In May 2018 the High Court confirmed that what has happened to you is unlawful.

https://vlex.co.uk/vid/r-elizabeth-harvey-v-792008333

Answer 6

Our clerk had a habit of being rude, unhelpful and really quite vindictive to Councillors and the public. At the same time, he could turn on the charm. You never knew which version you were going to get.

Previous councillors came and went, worn down by this Clerk. I decided, as the new Chair, that this behaviour needed to be addressed. As councillors (only 1+ quorate), we read and understood the disciplinary procedure, the first step being 'to informally meet with the Clerk and discuss how we could highlight issues from both sides and find a way of moving forward amicably'.  
Well to say that we fell at the first step would be an understatement - one councillor resigned due to the clerks behaviour and the other two flatly refused to proceed with the informal meeting. They both knew that the clerk was a bully, but they were 'too scared' to proceed.
So, without their support, I had no option other than to resign because I just wasn't prepared to put up with such behaviour but felt I couldn't do anything about it. We are all volunteers after all.

Comments

If I may correct the assertion that we are volunteers, we are not. We are elected officials bound by a code of conduct. It's a common misconception I feel.