Telegraph e-paper

Majority of councils have ‘Jackie Weaver’ moments

By Dominic Penna POLITICAL REPORTER

COUNCILLORS have been accused of bullying in more than half of all town and parish councils, a report has found.

The findings also show an imminent loss of expertise amid a shortage of younger clerks and a marked increase in the number of local councils run on party political lines.

Led by Prof Steven Griggs from De Montfort University in Leicester, it will be the first report of its kind in three decades after the lack of any equivalent audit from the Local Government Association or the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

Prof Griggs’s interim report found more than half of councils had experienced behavioural issues from councillors, including bullying and disrespect towards other representatives, according to early findings from their survey of hundreds of clerks.

Inappropriate behaviour was thrown into sharp relief last year by a video of a meeting in Handforth featuring councillors shouting at one another and acting clerk Jackie Weaver to the point that some were removed from the call.

Jonathan Owen, chief executive of the National Association of Local Councils (NALC), said councils were doing “brilliant things to build strong communities” and address challenges including health policy and the cost of living.

“Research consistently shows the vast majority of local councils are well run with few behavioural issues and take their roles and responsibilities seriously,” Mr Owen said.

“But NALC is urging the Government to reset and prioritise standards in

‘We urge the Government to introduce sanctions such as suspension for a minority of councillors who misbehave’

public life and introduce sanctions such as suspension for the minority of councillors who behave poorly.”

Meanwhile, only five per cent of the clerks who responded were aged between 31 and 40, while two in five (39 per cent) were 51 to 60, representing “an imminent loss of retiring expertise”.

The number of local councils run on party political lines has increased almost sixfold in the past three decades, with the number controlled by national parties rising from four per cent in 1991 to 23 per cent in 2021.

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Daily Telegraph