Mirfield councillor calls for elected members to be named and shamed if they break conduct rules

That’s the view of one Kirklees councillor who has called on the authority to toughen its stance when enforcing its code of conduct.

Martyn Bolt, who represents Mirfield for the Conservatives, said Kirklees Council should go back to publicising such matters as part of their legal notices in local newspapers.

He said: “In the court of public opinion that’s where we are all judged.”

His comments follow the high-profile case of James Dalton, a parish councillor in the Holme Valley, who received dozens of complaints last year after making provocative tweets referring to overweight health workers.

As “principal council” Kirklees bears the cost of investigating the dossier of complaints against him.

Holme Valley Parish Council sanctioned Mr Dalton, who represents the Democrats and Veterans Direct Democracy Party (DVP), for what it described as “inappropriate actions”.

It called on him to issue a written apology, delete the tweets and to undertake diversity training.

Mr Dalton rejected suggestions he had breached the code of conduct and did not apologise.

The thorny issue of code of conduct complaints was discussed at Kirklees Council’s Standards Committee (MAR 11).

Members heard that councils like Kirklees are limited in what sanctions they can impose on members – and how they can be enforced.

Legal experts said they must abide by current regulations, which do not allow councils in England to be as robust in their punishments as authorities in Wales and Scotland.

The issue around sanctions was described as “really problematic” whilst the standards process “fails us in a lot of ways”.

Coun Bolt said members made a declaration on being elected that they would abide by the council’s code of conduct.

He added: “We make a promise. If, at the end of a process, a member refuses to accept the findings and carry out whatever the outcomes were, that to me is a straight breach of the code.

“As an elected member if they are breaking their solemn promise then that’s something people should know about.

“If that declaration doesn’t mean anything then why do we do it? It’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.”

He urged the council to be more assertive in its approach.

Julie Muscroft, the council’s monitoring officer, said whilst there was no legal obligation to publicise standards issues it could be considered as part of an ongoing review of the code of conduct.

She pointed out that decisions on standards issues were published on the council’s website.

“The issue around sanctions is really problematic. We do not have any appropriate sanctions.”

She said a draft code of conduct being considered by the Local Government Association lists some of the options available to councils “but it doesn’t say what happens if someone is unwilling to comply with it.

“There’s a whole load of things that don’t get adequately dealt with as part of the standards process and the code of conduct.”

Chair of the committee, Labour’s Clr Paul Davies, said given that Scotland and Wales had the power to suspend members the standards process in England was “a great frustration for us as decision-makers”.

At the same meeting the council’s senior legal officer, David Stickley, said 18 complaints relating to breaches of the code of conduct had been received in the last six months.

Ten related to district members on Kirklees Council and eight related to parish councillors.

Three were not progressed and one was dealt with accordingly. The remainder are currently being investigated.

Of the 46 complaints recorded in a previous report, which include those relating to Mr Dalton, 44 went through a formal assessment panel and subsequent decision-making stage.

Mr Stickley said: “There remain some difficulties in enforcing the outcome of the decisions.”