Stratford district councillor calls for mandatory conduct training after complaints and county 'shenanigans'

The matter straddled two discussions at Stratford District Council’s audit and standards committee this week with concern raised over the volume of conduct complaints filed against district, town and parish councillors.

The next part was to consider a motion – a statement of intent put forward by councillors to shape future policy or decision making – around advocating a civility and respect pledge that towns and parishes sign up to.

The committee was tasked with considering how best to proceed and what the district’s involvement may look like.

Leader of the district’s Conservative group Councillor Sarah Whalley-Hoggins said: “I think there is a need, and I have observed a need, that perhaps we need to do refresher training or new training.

"Perhaps not as detailed as last time but I think there is scope for an additional training session so everyone is very clear what respect means and the culture of respect.

“We have lots of new faces and I don’t recall, unless anyone else can, having this as part of our initial training programme.

“It was useful. People got varying degrees out of it, and again I would go so far as to say that I think the training should be compulsory.

“We have already seen shenanigans at Warwickshire County Council and I think embracing this and offering the training would be a good idea.”

The quarterly update on standards issues includes complaints against councillors. The district’s monitoring officer Marcia Eccleston – the council’s most senior authority on legal matters – looks into cases reported against the authority’s councillors and representatives of towns and parishes.

There were 26 complaints either closed or started in the quarter reported on, three against district councillors and 23 against town or parish members.

One was upheld, three were settled through informal resolutions, 15 were closed with no further action and one was stopped due to the resignation of a parish councillor. Seven are ongoing, one of which is against a district councillor.

Councillor Kate Rolfe said: “It has been many years since I have been on audit and standards and if my memory serves me correctly, I have never seen so many code of conduct complaints.

“Most of them are (categories) one and two – treated others with disrespect, bullied, harassed or discriminated against.”

She asked Ms Eccleston whether this was unusual and about training. The response was that training has been and continues to be offered.

Ms Eccleston added: “I can’t account for what it looked like before because I have only been here since August but having done this role before, this is not unusual for me to see, unfortunately.”

She committed to looking into past data for Stratford.

Cllr Whalley-Hoggins questioned whether some had been down to “he said, she said” arguments from parishes.

Ms Eccleston replied: “Some of them are repeat parish council areas, but not as many as you might think.”

It was resolved that the motion on the civility and respect pledge would be discussed further at a meeting for all councillors without the need for a working group. The report on standards issues was noted.