Wixams parish council votes to find 'cost-free' alternative after £55k estimate to resolve complaints

Bedford Borough Council said it has no legal powers to require the parish council to contribute towards costs to investigate the complaints already submitted.

There are currently 36 complaints by parish councillors about parish councillors. One complaint has been withdrawn.

Last week’s Extraordinary General Meeting (October 4) heard that there hadn’t been a formal request to contribute to the estimated costs.

Parish councillor Sam Mardel said that everyone should be made aware of the complaints made against them so they could be resolved and withdrawn from the formal complaints process.

“We cannot be [spending that money] for the sake of petty squabbles and seeing some of the complaints I’ve had against me, they are petty,” she said.

“We need to do freedom of information requests, get all our complaints, and give a time scale to answer them directly to the councillor open-mindedly.

“The council then has a set amount of time to look at the answers given, and decide whether or not to withdraw them.

“Come back after that to see what’s left on the table.

“Then we try to convene a panel, that’s made up of maybe residents, maybe chairs from other parish councils, to see if we could solve this,” she said.

The chair, parish councillorSaqhib Ali said: “We currently have a fund of about £290,000. More than anything we would like to spend that money for the good of the community, rather than spending £55k on a report or an investigation that sadly will not resolve things.”

The members voted for a motion to find an alternative route, to be agreed, without costs to both the parish council and the borough council.

In May, Bedford Borough Council said: “Investigating complaints about parish councillors’ standards of conduct is a statutory part of the monitoring officer’s role.”

In September, the borough council said: “Due to the volume of these complaints, the borough council does not have the internal capacity to handle all investigations.

“To address this, additional qualified staff would need to be hired on short-term agency contracts.

“The total cost for these additional staff is estimated at £55,000, considering the complexity and time required to investigate each complaint.

“Given the additional financial pressure this unprecedented scenario brings, Bedford Borough Council considers that it would be reasonable to seek suitable recompense from Wixams Parish Council to meet these costs if they cannot be avoided.”

Last week, a borough council spokesperson said: “The borough council has no legal powers to require the parish council to contribute towards the cost of investigating standards complaints about parish councillors.

“The borough council has a duty to consider complaints, but has discretion as to how to do so – the complaints have been referred to the Standards Sub-Committee who have to date taken the approach of seeking a local resolution.”