Follow me @LindaDerrick1
Facebook Linda Derrick for Ridgeway East
15 April 2023
I’ve been doing other things over Easter and have had only intermittent access to my HPC e-mail account, so it has been a bit difficult keeping track of events at Hughenden Parish Council.
But here’s a day- by- day account.
On Monday 3 April, Hughenden Parish Council held an Extraordinary Council meeting to consider Bucks Council’s recommendations to censure and sanction me. I had decided not to go to the meeting (see my previous blog of 2 April.)
On Tuesday 4 April in the evening, the Bucks Free Press e-mailed my personal e-mail account to say that Hughenden Parish Council had issued a statement “regarding the council upholding the decision to impose a number of sanctions as recommended by Bucks Council due to code of conduct breaches.”
The BFP asked if I would like to provide a statement in response. I asked them if they could send me a copy of the statement.
On Wednesday 5 April, the BFP sent me a copy.
I was grateful to the BFP for letting me know the outcome of HPC’s meeting because on Wednesday evening I went to a meeting of Widmer End Residents’ Association (WERA).
The press release sent by the BFP allowed me to let residents know the Council’s decisions.
I had already explained to WERA what I would do if censured - I would continue to represent my constituents on Hughenden Parish Council and would continue to help and support them. However, I would no longer carry out any work in support of the Council as a corporate body. I had already provided a written report to WERA of my outstanding work for the Council.
The other two Widmer End councillors (Cllrs Cadwallader and Thomas) were at the WERA meeting. So, I was able to carry out a handover to them of this outstanding work.
On Thursday 6 April - at 6.37 in the morning to be precise - I was able to send my statement to the BFP in response to HPC’s statement. The vast majority of that statement went into the BFP paper on the Friday. My full statement is below.
The Council’s statement is at Sanctions Applied to Parish Councillor | Hughenden Parish Council (hughenden-pc.gov.uk)
You can decide for yourselves whether you think the majority of HPC councillors exercised their independent judgement in deciding to censure and sanction me or whether they just decided to rubber stamp BC’s recommendations.
However, there seems little doubt to me that the Council explicitly “fettered its discretion” in deciding to apply these sanctions. I have been advised this is unlawful. (Fettering of discretion occurs when “an administrative body binds itself to policy or to the views of others, rather than exercising its discretion to decide the individual matter before it”.)
Later on Thursday morning, I got home and was able to access my HPC e-mail account. I had received an e-mail from HPC’s Clerk on Tuesday 4 April setting out the sanctions the Council had agreed and attaching a copy of the press release already issued, a statement which had gone on HPC’s website, and the draft minutes of the Extraordinary meeting on 3 April.
The Clerk’s e-mail had only been copied to Cllr Cadwallader, the Chair of HPC, so I do not know whether other councillors had been consulted on the statements or indeed had seen them before they were issued. I copied the e-mail to other councillors just in case.
There were six sanctions which, I take it, are a word-by-word repeat of Buck’s Council’s recommendations. I’m happy to send a copy on request if you can’t find online. I am seeking clarification of one of the sanctions.
In the meantime, the Local Government Ombudsman has decided to investigate my complaint against Bucks Council of institutional harassment and bullying, and abuse of process.
I will keep you informed.
But I will try and report on normal Council business next, though there is not much of that I am afraid.
My statement.
Bucks Council recommended to Hughenden Parish Council that HPC censure and sanction me because BC concluded I had breached HPC’s Code of Conduct.
HPC’s Code of Conduct requires councillors, when taking decisions, “to pay due regard to the advice of officers” including Bucks Council’s Monitoring Officer. However, councillors are specifically required “to attach appropriate weight to all relevant considerations”. This would include my response to the complaints, public opinion and councillors’ own direct experience of events.
Most importantly, councillors under the Code are required “to exercise their own independent judgement.”
However, HPC decided, by a majority, that “It was not open to the Parish Council to “reach any different conclusions about [BC’s investigation]” or “determine other sanctions to those recommended by [BC’s] Sub-Committee.”
In other words, HPC decided it had no option except to agree the conclusions of Bucks Council.
Since when did parish councillors decide to rubber stamp the recommendations of Bucks Council without question?
Clearly a majority of HPC’s councillors decided not to exercise their own independent judgement; they therefore breached HPC’s Code of Conduct.
A majority of councillors on HPC decided I had breached HPC’s Code of Conduct and, in doing so, they breached HPC’s Code of Conduct.
Should I make a formal complaint to BC’s Monitoring Officer?
It’s Alice in Wonderland again in HPC.
It would be funny except that HPC’s decision is self- harming.
I will continue to represent my constituents on Hughenden Parish Council and will continue to help and support them.
However, I will no longer carry out any work in support of the Council as a corporate body.
All a majority of HPC councillors have done is deprive the Council of the services of one of the few councillors on the Council (me) who has been actively working to support the Council.
That’s what I call self-harm.
A report by the Fawcett Society last week concluded that the vast majority (95%) of local authorities across the UK are dominated by men, with only 18 of 382 councils having at least equal numbers of male and female councillors. The lowest proportion of female councillors is found in the Conservative party (29%).
One of the main causes of a lack of female representation is sexism and harassment.
When the complaints were made, I was the only woman on Hughenden Parish Council and harassed by other councillors. It was part of the culture of the Council.
So, the Fawcett report comes as no surprise.
I am lucky. I have a supportive family who are outraged at what has happened to me. I never wanted to be a parish councillor and I will now just turn up for Council meetings like the majority of other councillors on HPC.
But I will continue to make HPC’s actions public, including when it acts unlawfully and wastes taxpayers’ money.
I will survive.
But will HPC?