Councillor complaints of ‘bullying and intimidation’

Richard Evans Local Democracy Reporter

A complaint has been made to a council’s monitoring officer, following reports of councillors ‘intimidating’ one another by shouting, hissing, booing, bullying, and heckling in the chamber.

The complaint follows a heated meeting on Thursday at Bodlondeb when several councillors complained of being interrupted when it was their turn to speak on the budget.

Several councillors made it clear at the meeting they were unhappy about being ‘heckled’ by other members – with Conservative councillor Cheryl Carlisle complaining about the behaviour of councillors from other political parties, including those part of the coalition.

“Bogus point of order”

The row took place at Thursday’s meeting where councillors agreed a 9.67% council tax rise and over £12m cuts to front-line services, including over £4.1m to schools.

But independent councillor David Carr has now written to the monitoring officer to complain about the behaviour, which he says shouldn’t have happened after a motion was passed in December to promote respect between councillors.

Cllr Carr pointed the finger at the ‘ruling group’ of Labour, Plaid Cymru, and First Independent councillors

“I wasn’t happy that I was interrupted on a bogus point of order,” said Cllr Carr.

“I was interrupted, and the monitoring officer did nothing about it. When members are speaking, we should have respect. We shouldn’t be heckling and turning microphones on when people are speaking. That’s what happened to me.

“I was disappointed in the monitoring officer and the chief executive. They both spoke after me and didn’t flag this up.”

He added, “We should have respect for each other and (be able to) make our statements and not be interrupted. It is very intimidating when you are speaking when someone turns the mic on and starts speaking over you.

“I was disappointed because we passed that debate-not-hate motion in December.”

“Inappropriate”

In his letter to the monitoring officer, Cllr Carr said, “Shouting, hissing, booing, clapping, and interrupting of councillors speaking, along with very inappropriate personal remarks, were in evidence throughout the meeting.

“My concerns about the lack of respect, lack of courtesy and politeness, bullying, and harassment were clearly in evidence in the behaviour of councillors from the ruling group.”

The letter concluded, “This does now need to be investigated and (as well as) the councillors engaging in this intimidation, and (councillors committing) unacceptable behaviour need to be advised by the monitoring officer of their clear breaches of the code of conduct.”

After the meeting, the Local Democracy Reporting Service received other complaints from councillors, stating they were also considering making an official complaint.

Conwy County Council was asked for a comment.