Kington Town Council has deferred taking a civility and respect pledge, as a way of dealing with any councillor complaints that may arise
Kington Town Council has deferred taking a civility and respect pledge, as a way of dealing with any councillor complaints that may arise
Members were expected to make the pledge at the April meeting but some concern about some elements of the pledge and a shortage of town councillors, saw them putting it off until the May meeting.
Town clerk Liz Kelso said by signing up to the civility and respect pledge, the council would be agreeing to treat councillors, clerks, employees, members of the public and representatives of partner organisations and volunteers with civility and respect in their roles.
The council would also have to put in place a training programme for councillors and staff, have signed up to the Code of Conduct for councillors, and have good governance arrangements in place including staff contracts and a dignity at work policy.
They would also agree to seek professional help at early stages should civility and respect issue arise, commit to calling out bullying and harassment, learn from best practices in the sector and aspire to be a role model or champion councils through for example the Local Council Award Scheme and they would have to support the continued lobbying for change in legislation to support the Civility and Respect Pledge including sanctions for elected members where appropriate.
While the council already fulfils some of the demands there was some concern about the council award scheme and lobbying for changes to legislation.
Councillor Esther Rolls said she felt they should defer a decision and put it on the next agenda as they were short of councillors and she felt there was a lot to consider.
Members were told previously that a recent report to Herefordshire Council’s Audit and Governance Committee revealed an increase in complaints involving councillors against other councillors at local councils.
The complaints included a member who used inflammatory language in a leaflet distributed to the public, a member who recorded a meeting and then used it to criticise the clerk’s accuracy of the minutes, a member who demonstrated domineering, aggressive and confrontational behaviour, a member who responded aggressively to a question, banged the table and left the room and a member who walked out of a public meeting after a resident was allowed to speak saying ‘he was not prepared to listen to this (nonsense)’.
All of the complaints received were resolved by the monitoring officer at the initial assessment stage and no further action was taken due to them being of little consequence and not in the public interest to use further public money.
But councillors were told there is still a cost to processing complaints and the underlying issues remain and may not have been addressed.
There is a commitment by local councils to promote civility and respect in everything they do but only seven parish and town councils in Herefordshire have signed up to it – 4.6 per cent, extremely low compared to the national average of 17 per cent and the second lowest in the country.
The monitoring officer says there continues to be concern about the impact of bullying, harassment and intimidation in the public sector and its effect on councils, councillors, clerks and council staff.
The monitoring officer asks councils to consider alternative resolution to complaints under the Code of Conduct, to read and adopt all resources available and to adopt the Civility and Respect pledge.
