Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2020 were approved as a true record of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

Cases Update

The Monitoring Officer provided a report that updated the Committee on complaints received since the last meeting of the Standards Committee. It was noted that 16 complaints had been received since the last meeting and that reference numbers had been added to the complaints table listed in the report. The Monitoring Officer stated that a large number of complaints had been received regarding Bingham Town Council however, these complaints were not accepted under the Code of Conduct. The Monitoring Officer informed the Committee that she had written a letter to the Bingham Town Councillors, the Clerk and Deputy Clerk on the 14 July with advice of how to resolve the issues and move forward.

It was agreed that the Chairman of the Group would write a letter to Bingham Town Council on behalf of the Standards Committee which would endorse the advice of the Monitoring Officer. The Chairman agreed to circulate a draft of the letter to the rest of the committee members for approval. It was also suggested that the letter would suggest that the Town Council engage the services of an independent arbitration body which could support with resolving the issues for the benefit of the residents of Bingham. 

Best Practice Principles

The Monitoring Officer provided the Group with an update regarding Best Practice Principles. The Committee were informed that the save for Best Practice 7 “Local Authorities should have access to at least two independent persons” are yet to have been adopted across the region and therefore, would be unlikely be in place in the near future. The principles had therefore been adopted as far as the Council was able to do so.

LGA Code of Conduct

The Monitoring Officer provided an update to the Group following a collation of comments from Councillors on the Local Government Association proposed draft code of conduct. It was noted the Council’s response had been submitted. The Monitoring Officer informed the Group that the process had been delayed due to Covid-19 and hoped that further documentation would be received from the LGA by the end of the year.