Can a councillor make a complaint against his or her own council?

Question

A confidential meeting was held and a complainant did not attend as it was on zoom but it was offered that a representative could attend instead. There is loads of politics here and one councillor who did not like the process has now sent a formal complaint on breaking equality law. Said councillor had had some discussions with the complainant and so could have been the complainant's rep.

Anyway I thought that even if we don't always like something we have to support what the council has decided so can a councillor make a complaint about how something was addressed and approved by the majority of the council?

Answer 1

Firstly, has the councillor quoted chapter and verse on the breach of equality law? If the council made a decision, all members must abide by the decision. If the councillor is able to demonstrate that the process by which the decision was made was flawed, they may ask for the issue to be reviewed at the next meeting. From what you have said, this appears unlikely.

Councillors can, and in my opinion should, seek clarification from the clerk regarding such procedural matters if they have concerns. Sometimes this encourages the clerk to carry out the necessary checks and serves as a learning process for all concerned.

Comments

Thank you so much for your response. It is very helpful.

Answer 2

I presume the complainant was a Council Employee and a councillor wishes to complain about the way the complainant's grievance  was handled by the. Parish Council

If that is the case, the Council should have a Standing Order or Policy to deal with such matters. An agenda and minutes for the "Confidential meeting" must be published so that they are available to all Cllrs. The Question is, was the Zoom meeting recorded? The recording should if not tinkered with should provide evidence of the level of compliance with the SO/Policy and/or whether due consideration was taken in respect of the Equality Act 2010.

If equality law has been breached, the cllr could ask the complainant to raise an external complaint via advice here  https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/ and that could potentially lead to the Council having to appear in a County Court.  Minutes of the Confidential meeting would certainly need to be available if things got to that level of escalation.