-

This is the third joint communication from, Perry Holmes, Director of Legal and Governance at Wiltshire Council, in collaboration with Ian Nockolds of the Wiltshire Association of Local Councils (WALC). We are trialling an email every month on a topic of interest to enable continuous improvement in governance. The coming months, as thoughts turn to the elections in 2025, can give rise to heightened emotions and conflict. We want to remind you of the tools at your disposal to navigate through that period.

This month we wanted to focus on the “Positive Conduct, Positive Democracy” campaign we launched in 2022.

Positive Conduct, Positive Democracy  

We would like to remind all parish and town councils of the resources created by Wiltshire Council as part of its Positive Conduct, Positive Democracy campaign (more details here). Our objective in deploying the campaign was to reduce the number of formal conduct complaints to the Monitoring Officer. Ideally, we wanted to empower local councils to resolve the conflicts or issues leading to possible complaints informally. This might be after taking advice from the Clerk or after the intervention of the Chair or another councillor, or simply by councillors remembering the nature of parish and town councils.

The campaign began with a webinar that focused on how local councillors and clerks can avoid Code of Conduct issues occurring. A video of the 1-hour session is available on YouTube (link).

We also created a Positive Conduct equals Positive Democracy Charter. We encourage all local councillors and clerks to sign up to the Charter, to show their commitment to being a positive conduct ambassador and to promoting high standards in public life. Digital and printable versions are available on the Positive Conduct webpage. If you sign the Charter and email us to confirm you’ve done so, we will send you a special email signature banner to use, demonstrating that you are a Charter signatory.

For those of you who have already signed it we would encourage you to renew your commitment by signing it again each year and letting us know you have done so.

There is also a Positive Conduct Positive Democracy Toolkit (available here) that is full of practical advice and resources to support the smooth running of council meetings and to deal with challenging issues. For now, here are seven quick tips to help you:

  • Social media: The majority of the code of conduct complaints we receive now involve social media. A good rule of thumb is, if you wouldn’t say it in person or on the telephone, then don’t say it on social media. If you’re discussing council matters then you may be considered to be acting in your official capacity, even when using a personal social media account.
  • Emails: Encourage your council to adopt dedicated council email addresses for members. These should be used only in that capacity, with members’ personal email addresses always used for personal correspondence. This provides clarity and transparency for everyone.
  • Interests: Carefully read your Code of Conduct’s requirements on interests, as well as the relevant guidance from Central Government (link). If you are in doubt about your level of pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest, do declare. Better to be safe than sorry.
  • Planning: If you have your own application or live very near to one, consider whether you may have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and should be involved in formal meetings or discussions about it.
  • Chairing: Get to know your council’s standing orders, so you know them without having to look them up. This will make you a more confident Chair and one who operates consistently within your own council’s procedures.
  • Abuse and threats: Do not tolerate people being abusive, intimidatory or threatening towards you. You are entitled to stop any such conversations or interactions in person or online and if appropriate report the person to the local authority, social media provider or the police.

If you have any thoughts or ideas about councillor conduct, or other topic areas you would like us to cover please do get in touch at monitoringofficer@wiltshire.gov.uk we would love to hear from you.