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?
