District Council criticises JPC and Parish Clerk

Monitoring Officer says:  "the Parish Council is Dysfunctional"

Stratford District Council's Standards & Ethics Committee has failed to sort out the "Dysfunctional" Beaudesert and Henley-in-Arden Joint Parish Council and will wash its hands of this authority. The District Council has attempted to sort out the problems of factionalism in the JPC but with no result in sight they are pulling out.

In August 2010, a complaint (SEC019) was lodged by the parish clerk, Mrs Jenny Walsh, against Cllr Bill Leech. After an investigation lasting almost 6 months and costing around £10,000, he was found guilty on one minor matter. All the rest of the allegations were rejected. He had to serve a two week suspension and the Ethics committee asked for the whole parish council, including the clerk, to agree to professional mediation.

Liam Nevin, the District Council's Monitoring Officer, who was not at the meeting, had reported that mediation was not possible because of the large number of councillors declining to participate, along with the parish clerk. Cllr Leech had supported mediation. In a letter to the parish clerk and the chairman of the Joint Parish Council, Cllr Roger Hubbocks, the Monitoring Officer had said: "I am dismayed by the manner in which the matter has been addressed and which I fear will simply reinforce the perceptions expressed by the sub-committee that the Parish Council is Dysfunctional."

Mr Nevin asked the committee to close the case and the committee agreed with his recommendation.

Mrs Walsh told the press that the Henley Joint Parish Council has made no proposals to change the way it operates!

Cllr Leech said: "I do not believe I have ever done anything wrong. I have challenged the excessive and unnecessary expenditure by the parish council. Let's hope that a new, fully functional and inclusive council will be elected next May.

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Respected Resident Comments

Dear Editor,

I cannot believe the pomposity and disdain with which certain members of our local parish council are treating their positions. This includes the Chairman Cllr Roger Hubbocks, the previous Chairman Cllr Len Goodman and the parish clerk Mrs Jenny Walsh. She in particular has it seems been nothing but a real trouble maker since taking the position. She is after all only a clerk.

Roll on May and hopefully the residents of Henley will see sense and elect people who put the residents first and not themselves. I would insist these councillors contribute towards the £10,000 they have wasted on our behalf.

Peter Knight - Resident of Henley

Raiding the Reserves is not a "Cost Saving"

There can be no more obvious example of waste by the JPC than its quarterly Newsletter, which has become a party political pamphlet on behalf of the Ruling Group paid for by the residents. Stale news and self glorification do not make a very interesting read. 

The JPC Newsletter has now been supplanted by much more professional publications such as the Stratford Herald, Henley Focus and Henley NEWS, all of which circulate much more frequently. Is it not time to abolish it and save our money?

The Autumn 2011 JPC Newsletter, like previous editions, has not been approved for publication by the Full Council.

The reduction in the Precept (Parish Council Tax) was achieved by utilising Reserves not by cost savings. This cannot be relied on to reduce the Precept in future years. It is also valid to say that the JPC could achieve significant savings, running into tens of thousand's of £'s and this must become the focus in future years.

It is also improper to use a council publication for party political purposes.

JPC's Outrage at Court Leet's initiative

Rebekah Smith - Stratford Herald - 21st July 2011.

ORGANISATIONS in Henley that wish to be involved in the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations next year are being invited to come forward amid accusations this week that Henley Court Leet was "taking over" the planning of the event, writes Rebekah Smith.

It is hoped all the groups within the town that wish to play a part will come together to organise one large event for the community.

The event, which will be held in June next year, was discussed at a meeting of Beaudesert and Henley Joint Parish Council on Monday (18th July) night, where the Court Leet was accused of trying to take over the celebrations.

Cllr Les Goodman said the council had 18 months ago put a substantial sum of money aside for the celebrations. He said: "I find it absolutely astonishing that a civic organisation wants to take over the celebrations for the Queen's Jubilee. They don't have the right to do that. They should come to other organisations in the town."

Cllr Sheila Roy said: "I thought they'd have written to us in the first place asking us to join them. We need to get all of the organisations of the town together on this."

The council voted to write to the Court Leet, telling them it wasn't in their capacity to organise the whole event and that it should be done by a town committee.

However, the Court Leet's High Bailiff, John Rutherford, who was not present on Monday, was surprised to learn of the Council's discussions. He told the Herald: "I wrote to the council and said we had decided we would endeavour to get all the organisations who wish to be involved to come together, much as we did at the Millennium. The Court Leet were heading up a committee of joint organisations within the town for that so we thought we'd do the same. I wrote to the Parish Council and suggested they join us."

Mr Rutherford said that the court leet wanted every organisation in the town to have a chance to contribute: "It's obvious we want all the people in the town who wish to be involved to have a chance to be involved. We're trying to act as a focal point really.

"We've all got the same idea. Hopefully we will pull together."

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A Resident Comments

The reaction of the JPC to the letter from the Court Leet regarding the organisation of the forthcoming Diamond Jubilee is the latest in a series of petulant responses from the JPC to initiatives from other organisations within the town. The members of the JPC appear to believe that they have a unique right of organisation, and that all other bodies in the town should be subservient to their wishes. This cannot be right!

Parish Councils are a relatively new level of government, dating only from the Local Government Act of 1894. In accordance with the terms of that Act the members of the JPC are elected by the townspeople to carry out the duties required to run the civil administration in a legal and efficient manner, and to represent the interests of the town in other forums of civil administration.

To the credit of the JPC these tasks are attended to in a regular and dedicated manner. However the electors do not appear to have given a mandate to the JPC to seize the initiative in areas outside the civil administration.

On the other hand, the Court Leet has a long and distinguished history arising from the social fabric of the town and reflecting the position of the town within the wider community. Although many Courts were abolished in 1974, Henley together with 32 others was allowed to continue (being considered of historical importance). Today, many of the traditional responsibilities of the Court have been transferred to other statutory authorities, but the role of the Court in upholding the prestige of the town has never been lost. The Court is also a much more flexible and free thinking body than the JPC, being unhampered by the tight reins of bureaucracy which so bedevil and constrain much of the latter’s activities. It is worthy of note that the JPC recognises the importance of the Court Leet as “guardian of the history and traditions of the town” on the JPC website.

Many local organisations are anxious to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and any coordinated effort requires flair combined with a degree of “pomp and circumstance”, all of which the Court Leet has ably demonstrated in the past. A celebration of this kind is just the sort of thing that the Court does so well; it appears to be the most suitable organisation to coordinate an event of which the town can be justifiably proud. Let the High Bailiff lead the celebrations in the traditional manner, although if the Lord of the Manor could be present that would be ideal.

The JPC has an important job to undertake on a regular basis and has enough to do in carrying it out; rather than sulking they should be grateful that another organisation has offered to take on the demanding role of organising the celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee.

Henley Resident - Name and address supplied

£10,000 bill for Stratford Council Taxpayers

Stratford Observer - Laura Payne  20th May 2011

DYSFUNCTIONAL, antagonistic and divided is how a parish council has been branded following an investigation which cost taxpayers £10,000.

Henley and Beaudesert Parish Council was on the receiving end of the savage criticism from Stratford District Council's Standards Committee after the conclusion of a ten month saga which saw nine complaints made about the conduct of Coun Bill Leech by fellow councillors and the parish clerk.

But the committee cleared Coun Leech of any wrong-doing in all but one instance where it found an article he published online took comments made by the clerk Jenny Walsh out of context, made unjustified references to her behaving illegally and was generally disrespectful to her.

Coun Leech was ordered to write a letter of apology or face a two week suspension if he failed to do so. He told the Observer he had refused to apologise.

He said: "Having taken time to reflect on this I have decided not to apologise for failing to show respect. Respect has to be earned and it also has to work both ways, the ruling group, including the parish clerk, have not shown me any respect."

He added he would not appeal the decision because as it would cost taxpayers more money on top of that which had "already been wasted".

Coun Leech said: "I will not be appealing against the decision as it would only involve further months of investigation and more cost on what is at the end of the day a petty squabble. The Investigating Officer even agreed that this type of investigation was not designed for such trivial matters."

In one of the complaints Coun Leech was accused of misusing parish council letterheaded paper but investigating officers pointed out the letter in question was clearly marked 'draft.'In its response to this incident the committee said nothing had occurred which constituted a breach of the code of conduct or warranted an investigation and called some of the complaints it was being asked to consider simply 'tit-for-tat.'

Five of the complaints made against Coun Leech were submitted by Mrs Walsh who accused him of sending threatening correspondence and attempting to undermine her position.

Mrs Walsh told the Observer she has been instructed not to comment until the standards committee had submitted its full report - expected in a couple of weeks.

Coun Leech said he hoped the parish council could now move forward.

He said: "We have a dysfunctional council which was confirmed in the response from the district council. Let’s hope that with their intervention Henley will be the clear winner in that it may now have a more democratic parish council."

The district council has suggested all those involved bury their differences.

Serial Complaints lead to 'Dysfunctional JPC' label

The Beaudesert and Henley-in-Arden Joint Parish Council is dominated by a few members and the parish clerk. They have challenged by Cllr Leech over many matters which he believed should be questioned. As result 9 complaints made against Cllr Leech since he became a parish councillor in 2008. Of these, 5 have been made by the parish clerk. 

These complaints have probably cost the Henley Parish Council over £10,000 and the Stratford District Council another £10,000 investigating them. The vast majority have been rejected immediately as the following listing demonstrates.

1. SEC008 – Cllr Sheila Roy - COMPLAINT REJECTED
2. SEC014 – Cllr L Goodman - COMPLAINT REJECTED
3. SEC016 – Miss V Johnson - COMPLAINT REJECTED
4. SEC019 – Parish Clerk - 1 minor complaint upheld - 4 others REJECTED
5. SEC020 – Cllr Matheou - COMPLAINT REJECTED
6. SEC021 – Parish Clerk  - COMPLAINT REJECTED
7. SEC022 – Parish Clerk - Upheld although Cllr Leech was NOT INVOLVED
8. SEC026 – Parish Clerk - COMPLAINT REJECTED
9. SEC027 – Parish Clerk - COMPLAINT REJECTED

The only successful complaint (part of SEC019) related to using "without prejudice". he was found GUILTY not withstanding that a legal process was on going and he believed he was entitled to use this legal convention. The investigating officer considered this use “threatening”. The other upheld complaint (SEC022) was in respect of a matter of which he was not aware nor directly involved.

The chairman of the SDC Standards & Ethics sub-committee has called the Henley Joint Parish Council ‘Dysfunctional’ and added that the clerk’s emails were ‘provocative’. Approx 50% of all the complaints dealt with by Stratford District Council’s Standards & Ethics sub-committee in recent years have come from the Henley Parish Council.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said in the House of Commons: "The Standards Board regime became the problem, not the solution. Unsubstantiated and petty allegations, often a storm in a teacup, damaged the reputation and standing of local government, as well as wasting taxpayers' money."  The minister was correct on all counts and he abolished the Standards Board regime in the Localism Bill, which became law in November 2011.

In-fighting “Is stopping council doing its job”

Report by Rebekha Smith - Stratford Herald

TRIVIALITY and in-fighting dominated this week's meeting of Beaudesert and Henley Joint Parish Council when another meeting got bogged down dealing with petty issues at the expense of discussions issues for the benefit of the town.Cllr George Matheou summed it up neatly when he said towards the end of the nearly 90-minute meeting on Monday:"Instead of getting on with our jobs to serve this community we're dealing with pettiness."Trouble began in the public participation session when resident Mike Willmott asked chairman Cllr Les Goodman to explain why he had spoken in support of the cattle market application at Stratford District Council's planning committee meeting the previous week as the council had not supported the application. Cllr Goodman refused to answer, prompting resident Stephen Dorow to ask incredulously: "Why don't you reply? Is it not decent of you to reply to the question?"

Cllr Goodman retorted: "Are you saying I'm not decent?" To which Mr Dorow argued: "I'm saying it was a decent question." Cllr Goodman cut short the verbal sparring by agreeing with Mr Dorow but adding: "The rules are I don't have to answer."

However, Cllr Goodman later addressed the question by denying he had said he supported the cattle market application. He said: "I said we didn't object in principle to the to the development but we still had concerns over certain items not being addressed."

Some time was then spent debating the minutes of the previous meeting and whether two votes had been taken or just one, something one would think would be fairly straightforward.Two weeks ago councillors voted to seek police advice into a potential fraud committed by two of their colleagues. Cllrs Bill Leech and Sue Osborne, who had produced a draft letter using the council's letterhead and logo without consent.

The confused debate started this week when Cllr Sheila Roy said she had not voted to contact the police but had voted to report the incident to Stratford District Council's standards and ethics committee. Council clerk Jenny Walsh informed her only one vote had taken place for both those decisions, to which a number of councillors agreed. But Cllrs Roy, Leech and Osborne, and indeed the vocal Mr Dorow who had attended the last meeting, remembered two votes taking place.

Cllr Roy said she had not known what she was voting for and even Mrs Walsh admitted councillors were often confused about what they were voting on.

The council soon faced this danger again during a lengthy debate on whether to renew its annual membership of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE). Two councillors argued the CPRE had never helped the council, but Cllr Osborne argued the CPRE had done a lot to prevent inappropriate development in the town.

After a proposal to renew membership had been defeated a seemingly academic proposal not to renew membership was made. As even the clerk got confused about whether councillors were voting for or against paying the annual subscription of £29 Mr Dorow chipped in: "Shall I pay it?" The council eventually voted not to renew the membership.

Among the petty issues was some good news for the town. Cllr George Matheou updated councillors on progress with ideas to deal with the derelict buildings at Henley Railway Station and put forward his idea to set up a committee to look at alternative sites for the market, to ensure Henley remains a market town.

Cllr Chris Milsom reported on the success of the flood exercise held on Saturday as part of the national Watermark exercise, and a resident asked councillors to add their names to a petition to save the town's library—already up to nearly 500 signatures.

The Midweek Herald report on the planning meeting states:
Parish council chairman Cllr Les Goodman told members on Wednesday the council supported the plans in principle .....

2 Councillors reported to the police

Stratford Herald - 3rd March 2011

HENLEY councillors requested a police investigation this week into the conduct of two of their colleagues who used the council's official letterhead without consent.

At the meeting of Beaudesert and Henley Joint Parish Council on Monday night the council's clerk, Jenny Walsh, told councillors that the action of Cllrs Sue Osborne and Bill Leech was potentially fraudulent.

The issue arose from a request by a resident of Prince Harry Road for the two councillors to ask for his complaint about the council's chairman, Cllr Les Goodman, to be included on the council's agenda last month.

The resident had requested an apology from Cllr Goodman after comments he made at a meeting on 6th December last year when the resident was prevented from talking about the cattle market. Mrs Walsh told the Herald that the resident had previously sent an e-mail to all councillors saying if they wanted to be re-elected in 2012 they should be mindful of the resident's views on the cattle market.

Cllr Goodman, and several other councillors, told the resident they found this comment offensive. The resident then made a formal complaint to the Stratford District Council's monitoring officer but it was rejected in February.

Mrs Walsh said after the meeting: "Complaints about individual councillors is not a matter for a parish council to discuss on its agenda, therefore the two councillors were wrong to ask me to include it. More significantly, the letter they signed included an attached draft 'apology' that had been created on the council's own letter headed paper. Although watermarked with 'draft' it purported to be sent as an apology to the resident from the chairman."

Mrs Walsh contacted the association of local councils for advice and said the county secretary confirmed the councillors were wrong to request the item and had most likely breached the code of conduct for councillors in   using   the council’s letter headed paper without permission to re-create a document which, purported to have been created by the council.

She said forging an organisation's official letterhead without its consent was outside the law.

At Monday's meeting Cllr George Matheou urged fellow   councillors   to inform the police and request a full investigation. Councillors voted for both the police investigation and to register a complaint to Stratford District Council's standards and ethics committee.

After the meeting, Cllr Leech said: "The JPC (joint parish council) ruling group do not want anyone on the council who will challenge them. To date. there have been six complaints against me to the Standards and Ethics committee. None of these complaints has so far been successful but these complaints have cost Stratford District Council taxpayers about £10,000 to investigate."