Ex-vice chairman fires broadside at committee (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Ex-vice chairman fires broadside at committee

2:00pm Friday 6th August 2010 in

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A COMMITTEE monitoring borough councillors’ behaviour has come under fire – from its former vice-chairman.

George Hulme, 79, who was dropped from the standards committee in April after his three-year term was not renewed, claimed:

* The committee has “sloppy administration”;

* it failed to check whether its sanctions were followed through;

* committee members were not given proper training;

* many councillors were ill-informed about the councillors’ code of conduct they were supposed to uphold.

Mr Hulme, who served on committees during his working career in the RAF, as a senior manager for various companies and, away from work, as a football association referee administrator, said: “I found my time on the committee to be the most frustrating of any on which I have served.”

He added that on two occasions, the committee had recommended councillors – one a parish councillor, the other a borough councillor – should undergo training. But in the case of the former, no training ever took place, and the committee had not heard the result of the latter many months after it was ordered, he said.

Mr Hulme said the Standards Board for England introduced a new code of conduct two years ago, but he was the only committee member from Basingstoke to attend meetings held by the board to explain it.

The former vice-chairman, who was one of four non-councillors on the committee, claimed that local government rules meant minutes were not kept properly and when items were not in the minutes the rules prevented them being brought up again.

The standards committee has previously come under fire for the manner in which complaints are handled and the length of time it took to reach verdicts on alleged breaches of the code.

But Mr Hulme said these complaints illustrated a lack of knowledge among councillors about standards procedures.

He said “a change in attitude” among councillors to the code of conduct was needed to solve the problems.

“That can only be brought about by more rigorous training of councillors at all levels,” he said. “That is a lot of work but it’s absolutely necessary.”

Council monitoring officer David Robb, the standards committee’s principle adviser, said: “Training is carried out regularly for standards committee members.

“The last session was in November and covered conducting hearings and assessing complaints.

“No current or past members of the committee have ever raised concerns about training of committee members of effectiveness of the committee with me.”