The amount of complaints made against Liverpool councillors has dropped significantly over the past eight months.
When Liverpool Council established its committee for standards and ethics in July, the number of complaints it received regarding elected city officials stood at 40. A meeting of the committee has since revealed that just one grievance remains outstanding against a member.
Chris Walsh, Liverpool Council’s deputy monitoring officer told councillors at Liverpool Town Hall that a single complaint remained on the authority’s books to be dealt with and was at what he described as the “informal resolution stage.” A report by Mr Walsh to members said that since the committees last meeting in January, a number of complaints had “been resolved whereby an appropriate apology had been offered by the elected member and accepted by the complainant at the informal resolution stage.”
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He added that when an apology is given out by a councillor who has been complained against, matters are usually resolved quickly and that on some occasions, complaints are the result of a “misunderstanding.” Fazakerley Cllr Paul Brant welcomed this update and said members should not feel “reticent” about having to offer an apology where necessary.
Former Deputy and Acting Mayor, Cllr Wendy Simon, added that it was important that the council remained informed of the nature of complaints being received to guide potential learning and development for councillors. She added: “Sometimes we can get an increase which shows the policy is working, it’s not always about decreasing.”
In January, Daniel Fenwick, the council’s monitoring officer, admitted that when it comes to complaints against members - the existing code of conduct “has no teeth” regardless how serious the matter. Mr Fenwick said when a complaint is made against a councillor, an informal way of resolving the matter would initially be sought out but in reality the existing code “has no teeth, there is no obvious sanction should a member be found guilty of a breach of the code of conduct that the council can impose however that egregious that breach is.”
