Code of conduct complaint

Code of conduct complaint

Published 25 September 2024

Recently the parish council had cause to raise a complaint with LDCs Monitoring Officer regarding the non attendance of a District Councillor at any of the parishes meeting since elected.

Below is the reply from the Monitoring Officer.

I write in connection with the Code of Conduct complaint submitted by the Parish Council in respect of Cllr Hawkins.

First of all apologies for the delay, all decisions are subject to consultation with our Independent Person who has been unavailable for a temporary period.

Having considered the matter my conclusion is that the Member’s non-attendance at Parish Council meetings falls outside the scope of the Code of Conduct.

The Code sets out an ethical framework for conducting business. It does not extend to requiring Members to attend external parish council meetings.

Furthermore, there is not a requirement on District Councillors to attend Parish Council meetings when accepting the role. The Independent Person notes that there is ‘no statutory obligation, or constitutional requirement, or even guidance, statutory or non-statutory, that indicates that it is part of the role description or obligations of a district councillor to compulsorily attend meetings of parish councils inside their ward.’ He also notes that parish councils can convey information or raise particular issues in ways beyond attendance at meetings of the Council.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like to discuss further.

Kind regards