Agenda and minutes

The Chair reported that Councillor S. Lee was attending the meeting as a substitute for Councillor S. Bridgett.

The Chair welcomed Parish Councillors David Bewley and Alan Varley to the meeting as the newly appointment Parish Council representatives.  Parish Councillor Chris Barrett was not in attendance.

Apologies were received from Councillor S. Bridgett.

Minutes of the meeting of the 14 July 2022, as circulated, to be confirmed as a true record, and signed by the Chairman.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee held on Thursday, 14 July 2022, as circulated, be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

The purpose of this report is to update Committee Members on the current position and developments regarding complaints against three members which the Committee considered at its previous meeting on the 14^th July 2022. 

Members received a report updating them on the current position and development regarding complaints against three Members which the Committee considered at its meeting on 14 July 2022.  Independent legal advice was being provided by Ms. Samantha Broadfoot KC (who was attending the meeting via video link.)

Ms. Broadfoot reminded Members of the background to the decision made at the last meeting, following her advice, that the three complaints should proceed to a local hearing.   However, there had been a change in circumstances since that meeting in that one of the complaints, Mrs Lally, had withdrawn her allegations as part of a settlement agreement.  Her complaints were closely linked with those of another senior officer.  The senior officer had been contacted and asked if they wished to proceed and had been contacted again due to the ambiguous nature of their response.  The third complainant had indicated that they wished to proceed.

Ms. Broadfoot’s advice was that, in order to be procedurally clean and fair, that the July decision should be rescinded and to go back a step to allow the various parts of the complaints to be separated out and then to make a decision on how to proceed on what remained.  If it was decided to press on regardless, this would be fraught with legal difficulties, run against the advice of the Caller Report, be unfair to those complained against and undermine the terms of settlement of the former Chief Executive.  If the July decision was rescinded, then it would allow proper procedures to run their course and the next steps would follow the County Council’s normal local arrangements.

Regarding the Council’s committee procedural rules, a motion to rescind a decision within six months could not be made without a Notice of Motion to that effect and signed by nine members.  There were broadly two types of motion, with Notice and without Notice and there was a strong argument to say that the six months period only applied to a Motion with Notice and this situation would be Without Notice.  However, the best way to deal with the issue was to suspend Standing Orders

Members raised a number of issues and received the following responses:-

•       It was confirmed that the former Chief Executive had withdrawn her complaints as she wished to move on from the dispute with Members and expected that they would do the same.  She would not assist, promote or support any other complaints which may arise from the same or similar facts. 

•       There would be no need for new investigation reports as it was suggested just to go back a step and produce a smaller report based on whatever issues remained.  This would then be sent to the complainant.  The Monitoring Officer would apply the tests and criteria set out in the Local Arrangements, and it was possible that all parties would agree on a local resolution rather than moving to a full hearing.

•       It was important to respond to the change in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

The purpose of this report is to update members on the recruitment process for three Parish Council representatives to the Standards Committee. The Interview Panel should have interviewed all three Parish Councillors who expressed an interest by the date of the Standards Committee and will report their decision on the final candidate to the Committee.

Members noted the appointment of the following three Parish Council representatives following the recruitment and interview process:-

Councillor Chris Barratt

Councillor David Bewley

Councillor Alan Varley

RESOLVED that the appointments to the three vacant Parish Council positions on the Standards Committee until the next Parish Council elections, be noted.

To update Members on the recruitment process for two additional Independent Persons.  Candidates will have been interviewed by the date of the meeting and the recommendations will be reported to the meeting.

The Chair informed Members that following the recruitment and interview process, two candidates had been chosen.  The CVs of the successful candidates were circulated to Members at the meeting.  The two new Independent Persons would be invited to attend the Standards Committee scheduled for January 2023.

RESOLVED that the next meeting of Full Council be requested to approve the appointment of the two successful candidates as Independent Persons.

To receive a report on the progress with complaints received by the authority under the new arrangements adopted by the authority for dealing with standards allegations under the Localism Act 2011. 

Members were informed of the progress with complaints received by the authority under the new arrangements adopted by the authority for dealing with standards allegations under the Localism Act 2011.

In addition to the figures contained in the report, Mr. Masson reported that there were currently 18 live cases out of the 48 received in 2022.  Since the last meeting of the Committee, 30 cases had been resolved.

RESOLVED to receive the report and attached appendix.

The next scheduled meeting will be held on Thursday, 12 January 2023, at 2.00 p.m. at County Hall, Morpeth.

The next meeting will be held on Thursday, 12 January 2023 at 2.00 pm.