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14 December 2024
You probably won’t be surprised to learn that I don’t plan to stand again for Hughenden Parish Council at the local elections in May next year. I let Widmer End Residents’ Association know at its meeting on 4 December.
I think most, if not all, of the current councillors will stand again. I also guess that few other residents will stand. This means the culture of the Council will continue into the indefinite future.
For me, four years of this culture is enough. It’s been four years of a culture in which there is a complete disregard for good governance and the law, a lack of openness and transparency, and a failure to safeguard taxpayers’ money and get value for money – not to mention the repeated personal attacks on me (which I have not reciprocated).
I should remind everyone that this culture has been there for years. For example, this is what a then councillor said when she decided not to stand again for election to HPC in May 2021: -
“The lack of openness on key council decisions is not acceptable in my opinion, and is not conducive to operating successfully. To be met with fierce resistance when I requested a recorded vote, was astounding and goes against every ethic contained within public service and transparency. This kind of battle should not be required to achieve such a basic level of good practice.”
As another example, an ex- member of HPC’s staff said HPC had a "misogynistic culture and was characterised by incompetence, unacceptable behaviour, lack of corporate governance, and failure to plan and get things done”. She said this at a Council meeting in October 2021. She then called on the then Chairman and Vice Chairman to resign and was applauded by residents.
And this culture continues.
My blog of 1 December 2024 reproduced an e-mail I sent to the Chair of Hughenden Parish Council setting out my concerns about the way in which HPC’s new Chief Officer was appointed and some of the consequences.
One of the consequences is that the Chief Officer, Ms. Yaseen, cannot perform the statutory and other duties and responsibilities of HPC’s Proper Officer, Clerk and Responsible Financial Officer as she has not been appointed to these roles.
On 6 December, Ms. Yaseen e-mailed me. She made a number of serious allegations against me and said she was in discussion about them with the Chief Executive of Bucks Council and local Members of Parliament. She also copied her allegations to others.
This provides me with no formal opportunity to respond in confidence and no opportunity at all to respond to people with whom Ms. Yaseen has discussed her allegations and who she does not name.
I am therefore putting these allegations on my blogsite and giving it a wide circulation. A copy of Ms. Yaseen’s email of 6 December 2024 is at the bottom of this blog.
So, you can now read my blog of 1 December 2024, read Ms Yaseen’s e-mail of 6 December 2024 and then decide for yourself whether my blog of 1 December constitutes bullying, harassment, victimisation, indirect discrimination, defamation and non-compliance with the Equality Act 2010.
Needless to say, I believe the allegations are entirely without foundation. My concern was about the process of the appointment of the Chief Officer, not the appointee.
I continue to be concerned about the process of the appointment of the Chief Officer and the consequences.
I believe this means the meetings on 10 December of HPC’s Human Resources Committee and its Environment and Services Committee were convened unlawfully and any decisions made at those meetings are invalid; Council and its Committees are required to be summoned by HPC’s Proper Officer and instead they were summoned by the Chief Officer.
I also remain concerned that the Council meeting to be held in January will also be convened unlawfully and any decisions made at the meeting will be invalid.
You may think my concerns are trivial and it doesn’t really matter if the decisions may be invalid.
However, I understand Council will be asked to approve a preferred bid for the Great Kingshill playground at the January Council meeting. The bids will be of the order of £90k. If the decision to approve one of the bids is invalid, then any contract with the preferred contractor may be invalid.
You might also note that the National Lottery Community Fund awarded a grant to HPC of £20k for this playground in October. On 2nd December, the Fund withdrew the grant on the basis of the Fund concluding that the parish council had breached the terms and conditions of the grant. They have requested the repayment of the £20k grant by 23rd December.
You will find this information in Annex A to Appendix E of the supporting paper to the E&S Committee convened on 10 December (yes, the same one I believe was convened unlawfully). HPC doesn’t exactly shout this withdrawal of the grant from the rooftops. As I said, HPC’s culture lacks openness and transparency.
The point is complying with the law and the correct procedures does matter.
I put these concerns to Hughenden Parish Council on 8 December 2024 and that e-mail is also at the bottom of this blog.
I have had no response to my e-mail from Hughenden Parish Council and it looks as though the Committee meetings went ahead.
So, this is another reason for putting my concerns into the public domain; the public should know that meetings of HPC’s Committee and Council meetings may be unlawful and decisions made at those meetings may be invalid.
I did have a prompt response from Bucks Council confirming my understanding of the procedures for complaining about councillors breaching their Code of Conduct. Bucks Council declined to inform me whether Bucks Council’s Chief Executive had discussed these allegations with Ms. Yaseen.
I have referred this request for information to those in Bucks Council responsible for requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
P.S. I will try and do an up-date on a couple of things of more direct interest to residents before Christmas
E-mail from Ms Yaseen to the internal auditor, Cllr Jones and me on 6 December 2024
Linda,
I am writing regarding my appointment on the 2nd December 2024 and the email you sent regarding my position and appointment to cllrs on the 1st December 2024.
I would like to raise the comments you made about me on the public domain regarding my position on your personal blog, Facebook and other social media on the 1st December 2024. I have only been notified about your conduct as a councillor this week and seen evidence relating to myself and other chief officers who resigned because of your bullying.
I believe this is your blog which has been sent to my solicitor with screen shots and paper evidence including Facebook and other social media.
I am in the position of seeking advice from an independent legal solicitor regarding your comments on the email to the chair. Social media and the public domain for defamation of my character, indirect discrimination in employment, covert bullying and disrepute to my reputation and victimisation to a new member of staff who was not partial to your behaviour which was never challenged by the Buckinghamshire Council.
You have also requested personal information regarding my employment covered under GPDR and Data Protection.
I am in discussion with local MP’s and the chief executive of the council regarding this matter. Your behaviour and reputation of defamation, bullying and harassment is not acceptable in 2024 and will be challenged under the Equality Act 2010.
Your reputation of bullying and harassment of previous chief officers led to resignation and was highlighted in the media and never challenged.
Chair- I want to raise a grievance regarding this matter.
Please note- I will not be communicating with you regarding any correspondence.
Marina Yaseen
Hughenden Parish Council
Response from me on 8 December 2024
To: Council <council@hughenden-pc.gov.uk>Cc: Rachael Shimmin <rachael.shimmin@buckinghamshire.gov.uk>; Sarah Ashmead <sarah.ashmead@buckinghamshire.gov.uk>; Glenn Watson <glenn.watson@buckinghamshire.gov.uk>; The Clerk <clerk@hughenden-pc.gov.uk>; Deputy Clerk <deputy.clerk@hughenden-pc.gov.uk>; Responsible Financial Officer <financial.officer@hughenden-pc.gov.uk>; Andy Beams <andy@mulberrylas.co.uk>
Dear All
1. I am e-mailing to all councillors as you should all be aware of the situation.
2. It is obvious that my e-mail of 1 December and my blog of the same date express my concerns about the process of the appointment of Chief Officer, not the appointee.
3. My concerns about the process and the consequences, set out in my previous e-mails, remain. This includes the fact that Council has not agreed Ms. Yaseen’s salary and there is no authority to pay her.
Unlawful convening of meetings of HR and E&S Committees
4. Ms. Yaseen issued summonses on 4 December for the Human Resources Committee and the Environment and Services Committee meetings on 10 December, signing as Chief Officer.
5. HPC’s Standing Orders (paragraph 15b ) say that it is for the Proper Officer to serve a summons to councillors for Council and Committee meetings. I believe this is a legal requirement.
6. Council resolved at its meeting on 19 November to approve the appointment of Ms. Yaseen as its Chief Officer but not its Proper Officer.
7. Mr Truppin therefore remains HPC’s Proper Officer and, as I have pointed out below, he cannot delegate this function to Ms Yaseen or anyone else; under HPC’s Standing Orders (paragraph 15 a) it is for Council to nominate a member of staff to undertake the work of the Proper Officer when the Proper Officer is absent.
8. If I am right, then the meetings of the HR Committee and E&S Committee have been convened unlawfully and any decisions made by those Committees will be invalid.
Possible unlawful convening of January Full Council meeting
9. The Full Council meeting in January will also be convened unlawfully if it is convened by Ms. Yaseen and by then she has not been appointed Proper Officer. I understand that proposals to approve a contract for perhaps £90k for a playground at Great Kingshill will be put to Council at that meeting. I think any decision made at a meeting convened unlawfully might be deemed invalid.
Relevance to internal audit
10. I am copying this e-mail to the internal auditor. He will be carrying out an audit at the beginning of February and I hope it will include an audit of the contracts for the playgrounds which together are worth £130k.
11. The validity of Council’s decisions on financial matters is also more generally relevant to his internal audit.
Functions of Clerk and RFO
12. There will be similar problems in the future relating to the functions of the Clerk and the Responsible Financial Officer as Ms. Yaseen was not appointed as Clerk or RFO; Mr.Truppin remains as Clerk and Ms. Steele as RFO.
13. To avoid any doubt, I include below the relevant extract of the draft minutes of the Full Council meeting on 19 November. They have been changed from the draft minutes originally posted to HPC’s website; the name of the Chief Officer has been corrected and I believe the words in bold i.e. “(Clerk and RFO)” have been inserted.
14. However, the supporting papers for the meeting make no reference to the role of Clerk or RFO: nor does the job description of the Chief Officer on HPC’s website; and I cannot recollect that these roles were mentioned at the meeting.
15. And most importantly, the Council resolution only refers to the appointment of Ms. Yaseen as Chief Officer.
Simple solution to the problem
16. I have proposed a number of times that the Chair convene an Extraordinary meeting of Council (which he can do at any time ) and ask Council to appoint Ms. Yaseen as Clerk, Proper Officer and RFO, and ask Council to agree her salary so that she can be paid.
17. I have been told it would be difficult to do this before Christmas.
18. Perhaps I could point out that five councillors have been summoned to the two scheduled Committee meetings next Tuesday and presumably had those dates in their diaries. It would have been reasonable to have convened a very short Extraordinary Council meeting on the same date and reasonable to have checked that Council would have a quorum (i.e. 5 councillors).
19. Now that the Committee meetings appear to be unlawful, it would be easy for the Chair to convene an Extraordinary meeting of Council in their place.
20. Failing that, can I point out that at least 5 councillors have said they can attend HPC’s Christmas Community Social Event on 19 December. Again, it would be simple to convene an Extraordinary Council meeting on that date and reasonable to expect a quorum.
21. This is a problem of Council’s making and I believe it should do all it can to resolve the concerns around this appointment.
Request to raise a grievance
22. Finally, Ms Yaseen asks the Chair to raise a grievance. HPC has no grievance procedure for councillors, only for its staff. Indeed it might be unlawful for a parish council to handle a grievance or complaint against one of its councillors following the Ledbury case.
23. HPC does have a complaints procedures at Complaints-Procedure-Resolved-March-2020.pdf. It says at paragraph 2.3.c:-
“Member Conduct
In the event of a complaint relating to a Member’s failure to comply with the Code of Conduct, the complainant will be advised to make their complaint to the Buckinghamshire Council’s Standards Committee.”
24. These procedures were approved in 2020 and should have been revised in 2022; I understand that complainants should now be advised to make their complaint to Bucks Council’s Monitoring Office.
25. As HPC has previously misunderstood this process, I am copying this to Sarah Ashmead, Bucks Council’s Monitoring Officer and Glenn Watson, Principal Governance Officer in Bucks Council’s Legal & Democratic Services. I hope they will be able to advise.
General
26. As Ms Yaseen has been discussing her allegations with the Chief Executive of Bucks Council, I am also copying to her. I would be grateful if she could inform me if she has been discussing these allegations with Ms Yaseen and, if so, in what context these discussions took place and what was said.
27. I don’t know with which Members of Parliament Ms Yaseen has been discussing her allegations against me but I have to conclude that the requirement for confidentiality in making a complaint to the Monitoring Officer has already been breached.
Kind Regards
Linda
Councillor for Widmer End
Hughenden Parish Council
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