Parish councils are in trouble. Across the country, there are stories about bullying, financial mismanagement and silencing complaining parishioners, excessive precept rises, code of conduct breaches, warring factions, or just plain bad behaviour.
Take one county – Norfolk. In West Norfolk, the number of complaints against parish councillors doubled in 2023. In South Norfolk, the district council launched an investigation after mass resignations on Spooner Row and Geldeston’s parish councils. In North Norfolk, four councillors resigned from Mundesley Parish Council citing lack of due diligence, conflicts of interest and lax management of ratepayer money.
The list of issues goes on and on. And these are just the instances that make the press. ‘The Councillors Corner’ support forum on Facebook reveals further evidence of systemic trouble and ‘toxic’ or dysfunctional councils.
Are parish councils fit for purpose?
Parish councils are the lowest level of local government. In England they sit under district or borough councils and county councils. Parish councillors are unpaid volunteers. Their role is taxing, requiring, if performed properly, a huge amount of reading – letters from parishioners, planning applications, financial accounts, proposals, reports, etc., as well as attendance at Full Council meetings and, sometimes, sub committees. It is so time-consuming that, understandably, there are many parish councillors who vote on subjects without reading, or thoroughly reading, relevant paperwork.
Often parish councillors are unelected – either ‘elected uncontested’ or ‘co-opted’. This risks nepotism and chumocracy, causing factions – ‘the dark side’, ‘the good guys’, ‘the closed shop’. Decision-making often becomes personal, self-serving, acrimonious, and the council’s focus shifts from working for its community to petty squabbles, bitching, bullying or worse.
Individual councillors do not have, and cannot be given, powers to make decisions on behalf of the council. However, many a serving or ex-councillor has a tale or two about councillors making unilateral decisions, spending significant sums of ratepayer money without pre-approval from the Full Council, or operating in ways contrary to the parish council’s governing Financial Regulations, Standing Orders (rules of operation) and Code of Conduct.
All this begs the question: if parish councillors are making decisions while not pre-prepared, voting ‘with their mates’, disregarding the rules and ignoring the NOLAN principles of standards in public life, are parish councils fit for purpose?
The clerk’s role
The parish council clerk is typically the council’s ‘Proper Officer’. This is a title used in statute. The clerk is salaried, full or part time. Sometimes they work for more than one parish council. Sometimes they also take on the other officer role, that of Responsible Financial Officer.
The role demands administrative and organisational skills, IT literacy, good communication, the ability get on with most people and sometimes staff management. Their primary responsibility is to advise whether council decisions are lawful and to recommend how decisions should be implemented. They therefore have to give clear guidance to councillors, including the chair, even when that guidance may be unpalatable. And this presents other problems.
First, it is unreasonable to expect one person, the clerk, to have such breadth of skill and sufficient knowledge across so many subject areas – the law, local government, health and safety, RoSPA, HMRC rules, data protection, freedom of information, financial auditing. A clerk can seek advice from the National Association of Local Councils. However, there remains a significant risk that they may, albeit in ignorance or over confidence, give erroneous advice. Their advice could have significant financial repercussions, especially if legal redress follows.
Second, the clerk’s employment is subject to the whims of the council, and especially any councillors that appraise their performance. This makes the clerk vulnerable to being manipulated or bullied. If councillors are not au-fait with employment law, there is a real risk a pressurised clerk will lodge a grievance against councillors. All this would culminate in disruption to the council’s operation, and costly expenditure on legal fees.
What about governance?
Of course, there are parish councils that function well. But where is the oversight when there are serious issues?
Complaints about the behaviour of parish councillors or employees of the parish council, should be addressed to the council chair in the first instance. But self-regulation is problematic, particularly if the complaint involves the chair themselves, their acolytes or an opposing faction.
So, where do you go next?
“Beleaguered councillors and residents have nowhere to go,” wrote Jane Brook, a former Hertfordshire councillor in 2021. “Complaints may be made to the monitoring officer of the district or unitary authority, but they have no teeth to deal with bad conduct.”
“Lack of teeth” is not the only issue. East Anglia Bylines is aware of a code of conduct complaint made to a district council’s monitoring officer which took nearly seven months for an adjudication.
The lack of governance
The Government’s view is that parish councils are accountable to their electorate principally through the ballot box. But as Brook states, “with elections every four years, this is not a solution.”
If a council’s decision is unlawful, it can be reversed by judicial action. But most issues relate to code of conduct breaches, questionable financial management and a disregard of operating rules – actions that are inappropriate and unprofessional but not unlawful. Or, are about a council’s difficulty dealing with parishioners and ex-councillors.
Without swift adjudication by an independent body, such as a monitoring officer, there is no way of determining whether a parishioner’s complaint has merit or is vexatious. Currently, a monitoring officer’s jurisdiction is limited to member code of conduct issues. Hence, there are really no sanctions, and no penalties to rein in dysfunctional councils or their errant councillors. Nor are there means to bring closure to vexatious parishioners. Brook claims:
“Good councillors are resigning following unacceptable behaviour from fellow councillors, and trying to recruit new ones is next to impossible in such a toxic environment.”
The legislation governing Parish Councils is over 50 years old. A review in 2021 highlighted the fact that there are few remedies to a dysfunctional council.
Parish councils, their legislation and especially their governance, need urgent reform.
The independent Committee on Standards in Public Life is carrying out a review looking at accountability within public bodies and the importance of acting on early warning signs. The consultation closes 17:00 on Friday 14 June 2024.
Kate Moore is an ex-parish councillor
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