Monday 23 May 2011

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.