Agenda item

The following question was submitted by Councillor Nick Colbert under Procedure Rule 10:-

At the Full Council meeting on the 19th of December 2019 it was stated that despite Councillors being informed in writing that planning training was compulsory and that without it Councillors would not be allowed to sit on any planning committee meetings, it transpires that this was false information.

Who decided that lying to Councillors to persuade them to undertake unnecessary training was the correct policy decision to make and how far up the management ladder was this matter discussed and endorsed and by whom?

I have been a Councillor now for almost 9 years and have complained previously about Councillors is being manipulated by officers this is just the latest example. What can be done to prevent Councillors being lied to in future so that trust can be restored?

The Leader of Council provided the following response:-

Councillor Colbert is once again very wide of the mark. In yet another baseless accusation against our hard working and dedicated officers.  The training requirements for the planning committees had been agreed by members of the Council.including members of his own group and not by officers.

There was an all-party Member Transformation Working Group, Standards Committee, Full Council and the then-leader of the Conservative Group and the Liberal Democrat group.  In 2015 because every member of this council is a member of a planning committee because of our area system, planning training was compulsory and all Councillors were required to undertake it.  From October 2017 to 2018 the all-party Member Transformation Working Group considered the changing role of Members in light of Transformation and recommended new Role Profiles from Members of the Standards Committee together with a Member version of the Attitudes and Approaches framework used during Transformation for staff.

The Member Working Group consisted of the following people: Nick Weeks, Mike Lewis, Colin Winder, Jo Roundell Greene, Angie Singleton, Sylvia Seal, Crispin Raikes, Rob Stickland, John Clark, myself and Jason Baker.  On 15 November 2018, prior to the Member Working Group recommendation, all Members were consulted on the role profiles.  In February 2019, the new profiles including the proposed training requirement were agreed by the Standards Committee.  Including, that they should not form part of the Constitution but be a companion piece to this.  Therefore, as they are not in the Constitution, they are advisory and not compulsory.

As concerns Regulation Committee members, the new Role Profiles adopted by the Committee state the desirable knowledge of Regulation Committee members including a thorough understanding of planning regulations and process.  The detailed understanding of the legal and constitution arrangements relating to the Regulation function.  These role profiles went to Full Council in April 2019.  On 8 March 2019 there was a meeting between myself and the then-leader of the Conservative Group, Councillor Mike Lewis, to agree the Member Support and Development Programme for new Councillors after the May Elections.    In April 2019 a letter and form were sent to all District Councillor election candidates, outlining the support and training on offer.  This was agreed by the Leaders at that time.  Its worth noting that what’s been agreed by Members of this Council follows the best practice guideline issued by our national body, the Local Government Association.

So Councillor Colbert and other Members can see what has been said about Member Training, two Members has always been what Members have agreed - and not what officers have agreed.  There has been no manipulation by officers, there has been no deception and no lies.  This accusation was a very public and unwarranted attack on the reputation of officers who are unable to defend themselves at such meetings.  I am very happy for myself to be accused or be attacked.  I am an elected Member and that’s part of the job.  But I am not prepared for staff to be attacked when they are unable to defend themselves in public meetings. 

Councillor Colbert knows that if he has a complaint about officers there is a route to go in lodging his complaint and having it investigated.  Instead, yet again Councillor Colbert chooses to lodge a baseless complaint in the form of a question in a public forum where the hard-working officers he complains about are not able to defend themselves.  This is a cowardly act.

It shows that I think his true intent is not to genuinely resolve issues that he has a problem with but to publicised himself and undermine people who work hard for our communities.

I also think it’s a bit rich that Councillor Colbert submits a question in which he accuses others of lying.  Lets not forget that this is the Councillor who recently posted on-line a most inaccurate account of an Area East meeting and in doing so he needlessly worried his residents and Wincanton Town Council.  He neglected to tell them he was not even at the meeting which he was giving a completely untrue account of. 

Last week we held an all-member briefing about the Future of Local Government in Somerset.  Some startling statistics came out of that - 25% of our children growing up in poverty, high rates of self-harm amongst our young people, an aging population, isolation and access to services.  Does he choose to raise a question about that?  The really important issues and challenges facing our communities?  No, instead of being focused on our communities he is focused on himself and trying to undermine this Council and its officers.  I know by far the majority of members in this chamber from all sides are focused on the challenges and issues our communities face and I know from dealing with our officers that they are totally focussed on doing the best job for our communities and delivering this Council’s aims and priorities.  I urge Councillor Colbert to stop focussing on representing himself and on undermining this Council and start working with us to represent the communities we are all here to serve.

Councillor Colbert responded that he did not feel his question had been addressed.