Wixams Parish Council should try to improve the conduct of its meetings, a borough council meeting heard.
Cllr David Sawyer (Lib Dems, De Parys) made his comments following a report on complaints at this week’s Standards Committee on Thursday (20 February).
Lee Phanco, the interim monitoring officer, reminded members that there has been a running issue with “one particular parish council”.
“Which has resulted in a considerable number of complaints,” he said. The report showed that there had been 39 complaints in respect to this council so far in 2024/25.
Mr Phanco said: “These complaints are actively being considered by the Standard Sub-Committee, who did meet last week to consider the situation.
“The members of the sub-committee were of the view that there remains a clear need for the parish council to improve behaviour and working relationships amongst its members and the conduct and effectiveness of the parish council’s meetings, which is what’s leading to the complaints.”
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Mr Phanco said the sub-committee felt that the issues being raised could be resolved by achieving those improvements – rather than investigating the individual complaints.
“At this stage, the sub-committee is still not minded to investigate the individual complaints for two reasons,” Mr Phanco said.
“It doesn’t believe that detailed investigation would assist in achieving those overall aims, and also there will be a significant expenditure of public resources to do so.
“But the sub-committee has agreed that the outstanding complaints will remain on file whilst they work through this process with the parish council,” he said.
Cllr Sawyer, who is a member of the sub-committee, said it was not abrogating its responsibility to investigate the complaints. He also pointed out that the name of the “particular parish council” – Wixams – is in the public domain.
He added that the subcommittee’s view is that the parish council should try to improve the conduct of its meetings for the best interest of its residents.
Mr Phanco added that complaints against borough councillors had increased (three in 2023/24 and seven so far in 2024/25).
“It may well be that given the position with a particular parish council that there is more public awareness of the complaints process at the moment,” he said, “And that may be why we are receiving those additional complaints.”
Wixams Parish Council was approached for a comment.
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
