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Agenda and draft minutes
Venue: Council Chamber, Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings, TN34 3UY. Please enter the building through the Contact Centre entrance via the seafront.
Contact: Democratic Services on 01424 451484 email: democraticservices@hastings.gov.uk
Items No. Item Apologies for absence
Minutes:
Apologies received from John Baker, Independent Person.
Declarations of Interest
Minutes:
None received.
Minutes of the previous meeting PDF 61 KB
Minutes:
RESOLVED – that the minutes of the meeting held on 30 June 2022 be approved by the Chair as a true record.
Minutes:
The Monitoring Officer presented a report on the activities of the Standards Committee in the 2022-23 municipal year.
The last Annual Standards Committee meeting was held on 30th June 2022, and since then the Monitoring Officer received a number of complaints against Councillors, as detailed in the report.
The Monitoring Officer talked the Committee through the complaints and explained that Monitoring Officer discretion was used to engage the group leaders in dealing with complaints against their members, with the aim of reaching a satisfactory informal resolution. If a complaint is serious enough, or if there isn’t a satisfactory outcome after seeking informal resolution, complaints can be brought to the Standards Committee for consideration.
Many of the complaints received in the past year concern the use of social media and there will need to be a review of the council’s social media policy to make sure it is up to date, user friendly and effective. Social media training will be organised, and group leaders will be asked to ensure their members attend.
Officers will also be considering a more accessible standards complaint process which can be included in Part 5 of the Constitution, in addition to an Independent Persons protocol to formalise the role of the Independent Person.
RESOLVED:
To note the contents of the report
Reasons:
1. To keep the Standards Committee advised of past complaints.
2. To keep under review the Standards Committee complaints procedures and improve the way the Council deals with complaints about elected members.(The Chair declared the meeting closed at 6.39pm)
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