Bullying and harassment ‘frequent’ within community and town councils, says report

Martin Shipton

Bad behaviour within community and town councils is “one of the biggest and most frequently occurring issues within the sector”, a Senedd committee has reported, with the bullying and harassment of both clerks and councillors.

The Chair of the National Standards Committee Chairs’ Forum told the Local Government and Housing Committee that many disputes arise between members and officers and commented that “employing anybody these days is not a straightforward or easy role”, and that “many councils are simply not equipped to do it … so it’s not surprising that relationships break down”.

Code of Conduct

The committee’s report states: “When the Independent Review Panel on Community and Town Councils in Wales reported in 2018, it stated that ‘many councillors think of themselves as volunteers, when they are in fact elected members with statutory responsibilities’ and that as elected members, councillors ‘have to meet the standards expected of them in the Code of Conduct’. This can, and does, lead to complaints when community councillors do not meet those standards.

“We heard from [Michelle Morris], the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (PSOW), that a significant amount of her caseload related to complaints about members of town and community councils. The Ombudsman noted that the proportion of councils and councillors her office receives complaints about is ‘small in the overall context of the sector’; however the office had seen a 42% increase in complaints against elected members and that the majority of cases related to town and community councillors rather than principal councils.

“The PSOW elaborated: ‘We’ve got a caseload of 88 cases we’re currently dealing with, and 59 of those cases relate to members of town and community councils. So, it is significant in terms of our work.’ The PSOW went on to tell us about multiple complaints: ‘We’ve got about four councils where we’ve got three or four complaints in that one council. And, of course, what happens is, a complaint’s brought forward, particularly if it’s a disagreement between two individuals, and you can get retaliatory complaints coming forward, and we get drawn into that … We have one relatively small town council at the moment – we have 13 complaints relating to that one town council.’

“The Ombudsman questioned ‘how functional that body can be with so many complaints and so much disagreement running between, in that case, the clerk of the council and members’. The Ombudsman went on to say that due to the time taken to investigate complaints, parties involved are ‘working in these often extremely difficult circumstances for a particularly long period of time’, sometimes with very little opportunity to ‘seek support and/or relief from the situation’.

“She said that sometimes ‘matters escalate to the extent that sickness absence is taken, or members of staff or councillors decide to resign’, and told us: ‘We consider that it would be beneficial to those who find themselves in this situation and the council itself, if an additional mechanism, potentially involving the parental local authority, could be put in place to safeguard the wellbeing of both parties during the process and ensure that council business can continue to work for the benefit of the communities they serve.’

“We were told that most of the complaints dealt with by the Ombudsman’s office relate to equality and respect and that ‘quite a strong theme’ within the sector are ‘complaints brought by members against other members, and complaints brought by clerks against members’. A number of participants in our focus groups referred to negative and threatening behaviour, including bullying.

“One participant described bullying in the sector as ‘absolutely atrocious’ and said that they were unable to sleep at night. Participants described being belittled and shouted at. Another said that clerks live in fear of losing their jobs if they don’t do what councils want, and another participant said that they have witnessed people having breakdowns and deciding to leave their roles.”

Respect

The report states: “It is very concerning that the majority of complaints investigated by the Ombudsman relate to the promotion of equality and respect. While political debate and discourse can lead to disagreements, which are part of the democratic process, showing respect to colleagues, regardless of differences, should be paramount. Our previous work on increasing diversity in local government highlighted that experience of toxic behaviour is increasingly a deterrent for candidates considering standing for political office. We strongly believe that all tiers of government have a responsibility to ensure members conduct themselves appropriately.

“Despite the requirement to sign up to their council’s code of conduct on election to office, it is clear that this does not prevent some councillors from inappropriate conduct.

“Given that most causes of complaints relate to equality and respect, it appears to us that many cases could be avoided by councillors undertaking appropriate training. Despite its availability, it is concerning to know that take up of the training is relatively low. We note that, overwhelmingly, the evidence presented to us supported the introduction of mandating code of conduct training for town and community councils, as is already the case for members of principal councils. We share this view, and believe that mandatory training could help to reduce the number of complaints made.”

Digital services

Other concerns raised in the report include the fact that the “digital services” of many councils are not up to scratch.

Some 64% of community councils have people using personal email addresses for council business, raising serious GDPR concerns.

The report also says that local authorities should provide IT support to town and community councils – many were unable to host hybrid meetings due to lack of facilities.