Report reveals complaints made about county councillors

A LACK of communication with residents and an allegation of sharing untrue information on Facebook are among the complaints about county councillors to be investigated during the past year.

A complaint of “intimidation and suppression” was made about one elected member of Staffordshire County Council, while another’s conduct towards parish councillors sparked an investigation – but no breaches of the Code of Conduct for Members were found in either case.

Seven complaints were made between June 2024 and March 2025 in relation to six councillors, a report to the authority’s Audit and Standards Committee revealed.

There were fewer complaints than the 15 made between June 2023 and May 2024, however.

Governance and support manager Simon Humble, speaking at an audit and standards committee meeting said:

“Last year we may have described it as the naughty boys and girls report, but this year it’s not too bad at all. Between June and December, we only had one complaint received, which was concluded to have no breach.

“January to March though, it did pick up ever so slightly, with six complaints received relating to five members. Two of those cases have been concluded with no breaches of the code found and there are still a few outstanding to be determined, with work in progress gathering information and arranging meetings.

“Of the seven complaints we have received, a few of them did relate to communications between councillors and constituents. There are a couple noted where communications have been very sadly lacking, others where communication had happened, but maybe not to the extent the constituent had considered to be appropriate.

“We need to emphasise the importance to members going through an election process in a very short period of time, and we will certainly be discussing it with new members in the next few weeks as well to make sure communication channels are kept open between constituents and members.

“Remember you’re their voice, so if they’re asking for something and it’s something you can do, please do that on their behalf.”

Cllr Janice Silvester-Hall called for support measures for members to be highlighted to those set to take office after next month’s county council elections.

She said:

“You can see the theme coming out is communication. As an elected member for the constituency you are representing, you would think why are you not engaging with those members?

“Of late, I have noticed that there is a new quarantine system and an awful lot of emails are going through into that system – that’s only a recent development and wouldn’t have necessarily impacted on these, but I think it is something to be aware of for the new cohort that are coming through.

“I would also like to see in there some reference to support for councillors, especially the new ones coming on board, because we know how many councillors we’ve got standing down already. There are 26 already so there will be 26 new county councillors – and a great potential for more – coming on board.

“We are aware there are vexatious claims that go though too and expectations that need to be managed. I think it’s important we also make reference to those for councillors who are coming through new to the county council.”

“Substantial changes”

The Government has recently sought views on proposals to strengthen the standard and conduct regime for local authorities in England. a report to the committee said.

Proposals include the introduction of a mandatory minimum code of conduct, as well as giving local authorities the power to suspend councillors or mayors found in serious breach of their code of conduct.

Interim suspension measures are also being considered for the most serious and complex cases that may involve police investigations. And a new category of disqualification is proposed for gross misconduct and those subject to a sanction of suspension more than once in a five-year period.

Cllr Tom Loughbrough-Rudd said:

“Yes, it is the naughty boys report, but in Staffordshire I’m quite pleased to see we don’t have any serious breaches at the moment.

“The Government has been talking about reforms to how we deal with complaints about councillors including suspension, which is something in English government we don’t traditionally go towards – have we started the work towards what will be quite substantial changes?”

Mr Humble responded that the authority was reviewing the standards complaints process and was at the start of that review.

He said:

“There isn’t a timeline yet – it is something the new monitoring officer wants us to get on with as soon as possible and we will bring updates to the committee.”

A full list of candidates standing in the Staffordshire County Council elections can be viewed here.