28 Annual report on the councillors' code of conduct for 2018-19 and 2019-20 PDF 150 KB
To consider the monitoring officer’s report.
Minutes:
The committee considered the
monitoring officer’s annual report on the code of conduct for
both 2018/19 and 2019/20. This
updated the committee
on
code of conduct work, including the number of district and
parish code of conduct complaints processed. The report also included information on
significant potential changes to the code of conduct
regime.
The committee noted that there had been an increase in the number of complaints against parish councillors, particularly in the run up to the last parish council elections. The committee also noted that a new model code of conduct was expected this autumn, following which a further report would be brought to the committee on changes required to the code.
The committee considered that it had a responsibility to help reinforce proper behaviour by district and parish councillors by reminding them of the code’s requirements and of the Nolan principles contained within. The committee considered that parish councillors should be reminded of their responsibilities now, rather than waiting for the new code to be adopted. Training would be offered once the new code was adopted.
RESOLVED: to
(a) note the annual report on the councillors’ code of conduct for the 2018/19 and 2019/20 municipal years; and
(b) issue a reminder to parish councillors of their responsibilities under the code of conduct.