Agenda and minutes

Members are requested at the start of the meeting to declare any known interests in any matter to be considered, and are reminded that any such interest should also be declared at the start of an item or during any discussion of the matter concerned.

The Chair reminded Members of the need to declare any known interests in any matters to be considered at the meeting.  Councillors Maurice Fanning and David Wood made a non prejudicial declarations of interests in respect of Agenda Item No. 4 (Minute 19), as both the complainants and the Councillor complained about were Councillor Colleagues and well known to them.

            The Standards Committee Hearings Panel met to conduct a Hearing of a complaint in respect of two complaints alleging that Councillor Vera Tomlinson of Swindon Borough Council had breached the Members’ Code of Conduct by failing to treat a person with respect by making allegations of collusion between Councillors at a public meeting of the Planning Committee,

            The complaint had been referred by the Assessment Sub-Committee of 7^th July 2009 for local investigation and determination.  The referral was dealt with in accordance with Statutory Guidance and the Council’s own adopted Hearings Procedure. 

            The Monitoring Officer had appointed Miss Karen Trickey of Michelmores, Solicitors, as the Investigating Officer and she attended the meeting to present her report.  Councillor Vera Tomlinson was present at the meeting and elected to present her own case to the Committee.  No witnesses were called.

            A pre-hearing of the Panel had decided to proceed to local hearing on the basis of the one allegation of failure to treat with respect, concurring with the Investigator’s recommendation that the second allegation of ‘bringing the Authority into disrepute contrary to paragraph 5 of the Code of Conduct had not been substantiated. 

            At the pre-hearing the Panel had received Councillor Vera Tomlinson’s request that the Hearing be held in private, due to concerns that any report of the Hearing would refer to ‘Councillor Tomlinson’, which could be taken as referring to Councillor Justin Tomlinson, which would be misleading and unfair to him.  Whilst sympathetic to those concerns, the Panel was of the initial view that the press or public should not be excluded from the Hearing under the provisions of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, because the remarks which were the subject of the complaint had been made by Councillor Vera Tomlinson in public and had already been the subject of press reports so it was already in the public domain.  The Hearings Panel reaffirmed this view at the start of the hearing.

            In accordance with its agreed procedure, the Hearings Panel first made its determination as to Findings of Fact, then as to whether or not the Members Code of Conduct had been breached, and finally as to the appropriate sanction to impose.  At each stage of the process the Hearings Panel heard representations from the Investigating Officer and from Councillor Vera Tomlinson and asked questions, and withdrew to make its decision where appropriate.

Resolved – (1) That the Findings of Fact are as set down in the Investigators Report and in the Full Decision of the Hearings Panel.

(2) That, having considered the evidence presented by both parties to the case, it is determined that Councillor Vera Tomlinson breached the Members’ Code of Conduct by failing to treat another person with respect under paragraph 3(1) of the Code.  The reason for the decision is that Councillor Vera Tomlinson expressed a personal opinion which questioned the integrity of four members of the Planning Committee at a meeting which was open and attended by members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.