Agenda and minutes

The Panel will appoint a Chair from amongst its members.

RESOLVED that Councillor Tassell be appointed Chair for the meeting.

No disclosures of interests were made.

The Panel is asked to determine a complaint of a breach of the Members’ Code of Conduct of Mountsorrel Parish Council by Councillor Lemon. A report of the Monitoring Officer setting out details of the complaint and the pre-hearing process is attached.

In accordance with the procedure for dealing with complaints, the Panel was asked to determine the complaint of a potential breach of the Members’ Code of Conduct of Mountsorrel Parish Council as set out in the report of the Monitoring Officer, and to decide whether they amounted to a breach of the Code of Conduct by Councillor Lemon, and if so, whether it felt it was appropriate to recommend the imposition of sanctions to the Parish Council.

              Administration of the Panel

The Chair explained the order of proceedings and all present confirmed they understood the procedure.  It was established that nobody present was aware of any interests or other reason which could prejudice the ability of the Panel to hold a fair hearing and make a sound determination on the matters in question. 

It was confirmed that the Investigating Officer would not be calling witnesses and that Councillor Lemon would not be attending.  Councillor Lemon had submitted additional information just prior to the meeting.  The Monitoring Officer confirmed that this information, as it was received late in the proceedings, would be published with the minutes of the meeting.  Members of the Panel were given time to read the document before continuing.

The Monitoring Officer stated that having sought the views of the Investigating Officer and the Independent Person that the hearing would be held in public, although it was noted that part of the additional information submitted by Councillor Lemon was exempt.  If Members of the Panel wished to refer to this part of the document, they would need to notify the Monitoring Officer to enable the Panel to proceed into exempt session. 

Summary of Proceedings

The Investigating Officer, Mr Gill, presented his report and drew the Panel’s attention to the following:

·         regarding his participation in meetings, Councillor Lemon had not breached Sec 30 (1) of the Localism Act 2011 in relation to his disclosable pecuniary interest, in his contract for supplying drinks to the Memorial Centre. In participating in the extraordinary meeting, it was his, the Investigating Officer’s view, that the dispensation should not have been given.

·         that Councillor Lemon’s actions in submitting a motion for calling an Extraordinary General Meeting to overturn decisions relating to staffing at the Memorial Centre was in breach of the Nolan Principle of integrity, which was incorporated into the Code of Conduct of Mountsorrel Parish Council, because of the personal financial links arising from his contract to supply drinks to the centre,

·         that Councillor Lemon had been a parish councillor since 1991 and had stated he had received various training on the Code of Conduct requirements over the years, although no training records were available.

·         that as an experienced councillor, he should have been aware that his involvement in submitting the motion could provoke concern and showed a lack of awareness of how the public would have perceived his actions.

·         although Councillor Lemon had stated that his actions were taken in the interests of the parish and to keep the Memorial Centre open,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.