Issue - meetings

To review the operation of the Code of Conduct and to decide if any further action is required in respect of both the Council and the parish councils within the district.

Members were asked to review the operation of the Code of Conduct since its adoption by the Council on 17th July 2007 and to decide if any further action was required in respect of both the Council and parish councils within the District.  The Chairman commented that it might be useful for any future Code of Conduct training session to include some of the decisions reached by the Council's Standards Committee, particularly where such decisions related to a technical breach of the Code.  It was noted that any trends in complaints received for alleged breaches of the Code might result in recommendations being put forward to the Member Development Steering Group for training for all Members - both at district and parish level, and that such data would also be useful in making Members think about the relevance of making certain complaints and for them to have regard to the time and costs involved in the process.

Members were not in favour of making the Code any more onerous or prescriptive than it currently was and felt that more time was needed, particularly in view of the recent introduction of local assessment, to see how the new Code operated.  Accordingly, the proposed amendment detailed at paragraph 3.7 of the report was not supported.

RESOLVED subject to the comments in the preamble above, no amendments be made to the Code of Conduct at this stage and the Code be reviewed in due course once this has been in operation for a sufficient period of time.