Issue - meetings

That the Committee notes the number and type of complaints.

That the number and type of complaints be noted.

The Monitoring Officer presented the regular report on the number of ethical complaints alleging a breach of the Code of Conduct which had been submitted to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW).

Since the last report, a total of 16 complaints had been received.  As previously agreed, the information was anonymised with references assigned to differentiate between individual Councils and Councillors for each period.  Attention was drawn to a single complaint made against nine Councillors at the same time which had to be reported as separate complaints.

In response to questions from Julia Hughes, the Monitoring Officer agreed to check on whether the complaint reference 16/7020 related to a Town or Community Council.  On reference 17/7925, he clarified that the missing wording indicated there was no breach of the Code, in line with his advice.

When asked by Councillor Andy Trumper, the Monitoring Officer provided clarification on the target timescales applying to various stages of the process.  He also advised that changes within the Adjudication Panel for Wales may help to speed up the process from referral to the case tribunal hearing stage in future.

The recommendation was moved by Councillor Arnold Woolley and seconded by Julia Hughes.

RESOLVED:

That the number and type of complaints be noted.