Agenda and draft minutes

To appoint a Chair for the hearing.

RESOLVED: Councillor J Osborne was appointed Chair for the meeting.

To receive apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence.

Please indicate if there are any interests which should be declared.  A declaration of an interest should indicate the nature of the interest (if not already declared on the Register of Interests) and the agenda item to which it relates.  If a disclosable pecuniary interest is declared, the Member should withdraw from the room whilst the matter is discussed.

These declarations apply to all Members present, whether the Member is part of the meeting, attending to speak as a local Member on any item or simply observing the meeting from the public seating area

There were no declarations of interest.

To consider passing the following resolution:

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act”.

The Chair invited the Panel and Councillor Parish to consider excluding the press and public from the hearing.

Councillor Parish requested the press and public were excluded as the personal matters would be discussed in the Hearing.

Councillor Bearshaw agreed with Councillor Parish’s submissions and proposed that the press and public be excluded. The proposal was seconded by Councillor Ayres and agreed by the Panel.

The Chair invited the Panel to outline reasons why the press and public should be excluded.

Councillor Bearshaw advised that public discussion of personal information of Councillor Parish was not in the interest of the public.

The Chair read out the resolution for the Panel to exclude the press and public from the hearing.

The Democratic Service Officer advised that the hearing would continue to be recorded and that no unauthorised recordings would be permitted.

RESOLVED: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 1 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act.

At the invitation of the Chair, the Investigating Officer presented the report.

Councillor Parish asked the Investigating Officer a question in which the Investigating Officer responded. The Panel had no questions.

Councillor Parish presented his case to the Panel.

The Chair invited questions from the Panel to Councillor Parish in which he responded.

The Investigating Officer summed up the complaint.

Councillor Parish summed up his case.

The Independent Person provided advice to the Panel on the Investigating Officer’s report.

At 6:14pm the Panel retired to consider the decision in private with the Deputy Monitoring Officer, the Independent Person and the Democratic Services Officer.

The Investigating Officer left the meeting at this point.

Councillor C Joyce, under Standing Order 34 left the meeting at 6:14pm.

The Panel reconvened at 7:09pm

The Chair read out the decision of the Panel that the Code had been breached.

Councillor Parish then made representations on any sanction that the Panel may wish to impose. 

At 7:14pm the Panel retired to consider what action was to be taken following the decision it had made that the Code had been breached.

The Panel reconvened at 7:54pm

The Chair gave the Panel’s decision on recommended sanction.

The Chair confirmed that a formal decision notice would be prepared by the Deputy Monitoring Officer and published within 7 working days following the Hearing. A copy would be sent to the complainants and to the Borough Councillor.

The Chair also confirmed that the decision notice would be made available for public inspection and reported to the next meeting of the Standards Committee.