11 complaints against Peterborough councillors received since February
A new report has revealed that 11 complaints were made against Peterborough city councillors since February this year.
The report, to be presented to Peterborough City Council’s constitution and ethics committee on July 28, provides an update on current complaints against city and parish councillors on possible breaches of the authority’s code of conduct.
It notes that, since the last report to the committee on February 3, the monitoring officer has received 11 new complaints relating to city councillors.
Four of these complaints were rejected as they did not fall within the scope of the code of conduct, while another four were deemed to require no further action.
However, two of the complaints proceeded to full investigation which are currently ongoing and one complaint resulted in a councillor issuing a formal apology to the complainant.
One complaint against a parish councillor was also received in this period but was rejected due to a ‘lack of detail to ascertain that it fell within the scope of the code of conduct’.
Two complaints received prior to February 3 remain open.
The investigation of one of these complaints against two councillors has been completed and it was found that one councillor had breached the code of conduct. They have been recommended to issue a formal apology.
A second complaint remains at the assessment stage due to its ‘complex nature’ and is due to be finalised shortly.
Councillor Mohammed Jamil, deputy leader and cabinet member for finance and corporate governance, said: "We take all complaints about alleged breaches of the Code of Conduct for Councillors seriously.
"The Code of Conduct sets out how we expect Councillors to behave as they go about their important role, and the Constitution and Ethics Committee helps us maintain standards."