Agenda item

Report of the Head of Legal and Commercial Services and Monitoring Officer

The members considered the report of the Monitoring Officer in relation to a complaint made about Councillor Nigel Smith who is a District Councillor of North West Leicestershire District Council. The complaint was made by Councillor Johnson, also a District Councillor of North West Leicestershire District Council.

The complaint made related to comments that Councillor Smith made at meeting of Council on 8 September 2020 in the debate on a motion regarding the economy.  Councillor Johnson’s complaint was that Councillor Smith’s statement inferred that Labour members of the Planning Committee had been whipped in relation to an application regarding Land at M42, Junction 11, Stretton-en-le-Field, Leicestershire, DE12 8AA which had been considered at the Planning Committee meeting on 3 September 2019.  Councillor Johnson considered that this conduct breached paragraph 3 of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

The Monitoring Officer explained to Members that under the arrangements for dealing with complaints there was an opportunity for her to work with both parties to ascertain whether an informal resolution of the complaint was possible and outlined the informal resolution process that had been followed along with the work that she had carried out.

The Monitoring Officer advised that at the meeting of Council on 17 November 2020, Councillor Smith made a statement under the item - Minutes of the Meeting Held on 8 September 2020. Following the meeting, Councillor Johnson confirmed that the statement made by Councillor Smith did not fully address his complaint, as, whilst it sought to clarify the statement made on 8 September, it did not include an apology for any offence, which may have been caused, and that he wished to pursue his complaint. 

Given that the informal resolution process had been unsuccessful, the matter had been referred to the Assessment Sub-Committee in order that it could consider the report and determine whether to:

- refer the complaint to the Monitoring Officer to take other action;

- request further information from the parties;

- refer the complaint to the Monitoring Officer for investigation;

- take no further action in respect of the complaint.

Members considered the details of the complaint. They noted the views of the Independent Person, who felt that the complaint was politically motivated.

The meeting was adjourned for deliberation at 10.58am and reconvened at 11.42am.

RESOLVED THAT:

The complaint be referred to the Monitoring Officer to take some other action, namely to work with Councillor Smith and Councillor Johnson to see whether agreement could be reached on a statement which could be made to the Council meeting in February 2021. The Assessment Sub-committee noted the original complaint made by Councillor Johnson and the fact that Councillor Smith had made a statement at the Council meeting in November 2020. Whilst the statement had confirmed that Councillor Smith had not said that the Labour members of the Planning Committee were whipped, it had not apologised for the original statement or clarified the inference, which could be drawn from it. The Assessment Sub-committee strongly urged the parties to seek to resolve this matter informally by seeking to agree a statement, which could be read at Council in February 2021.