Racism, bullying and harassment complaints made at parish councils in Buckinghamshire

Allegations of racism, bullying and harassment have been made at parish councils in Buckinghamshire.

A total of six complaints from the parishes were dealt with by Buckinghamshire Council between July and September this year.

None of the complaints, which have all been kept anonymous, were found to have breached the member code of conduct.

Four of the complaints related to one parish council, including one case that has now been closed in which an officer complained about harassment, bullying and a conflict of interest.

The same parish authority also has two live complaints about bullying and harassment, and another alleging a ‘deliberate failure to follow governance’, all three of which are currently being investigated.

An update on complaints was presented to a meeting of Bucks Council’s standards and general purposes committee.

Cllr Tony told the meeting: “It’s reasonable that residents in these parishes know what is going on and in the main they don’t, I suspect.

“Also, because we are the authority that is responsible for looking into the complaints, the cost comes to our taxpayers, rather than the precept payers in the parish.”

He suggested that Bucks Council could charge the parish councils the costs of handling the complaints to ‘make them think more about their governance and how they could improve’.

Bucks Council’s principal governance officer Glenn Watson said that the anonymous parishes are named annually and that it would be possible to lobby the Local Government Association for changes, such as with charging.