*SC 3
The Monitoring Officer presented the Annual
Report to the Members.
Answering questions raised by Members, the
Monitoring Officer confirmed that:
-
Only one formal complaint was upheld this year that
had been resolved on 2nd November;
-
A monthly update would be given to the Chairman of
the Committee on any complaint received that had moved to the stage
of an Independent Person interview and upheld;
-
Parish & Town Councils had the power to deal
with their own dispensations;
-
A training event for Parish & Town
clerks/councillors in regard to standards would be arranged in the
New Year and led by the Monitoring Officer;
-
Officers
time was taken up dealing with calls regarding
complaints of which most were not classified as a complaint but
more of a disagreement to a decision or enquiries about Personal
and Disclosable Pecuniary Interests. In
response, the Committee requested some indication of the time spent
on calls and enquires and would raise this with the lead Hub
Committee Member for Customer First;
-
Recommendation for the annual meeting of the
Standards Committee to revert back to a date in March.
It was then RESOLVED that:
1.
The Annual Report be agreed;
2.
The Monitoring Officer will update the Chairman on a
monthly basis if any complaint moves to the stage of an IP
assessment;
3.
The Monitoring Officer will contact all Parish and
Town Clerks with a date for a training session on the purpose and
content of West Devon’s Code of Practice in the New Year;
and
4.
That the wording ‘dual-hatted’ in the
section on general dispensations to Borough Councillors in the
Annual Report is changed to ‘multi-hatted’.