Rebels return as council meets

Holbeach Parish Council met for the first time in several months on Tuesday amid concerns services are not being maintained.

Five of the ten councillors have been staying away from regular meetings leaving it short of the six (a third of the 18 members it’s meant to have) unable to legally vote through decisions.
Coun Tim Wilshere told The Voice previously he, Mark Murfet, Peter Howden, Clive Turner and Rachel Flood had been staying away because they were campaigning against “a toxic and bullying culture” experienced by staff.
But chairman Coun Sophie Hutchinson responded by telling them to “work with the rest of the council” and table motions for meetings.
The five agreed to turn up for Tuesday’s meeting on the proviso agenda items over the council’s conduct were discussed.
Several items were taken behind closed doors as suggested by Coun Murfet who had requested the agenda items.
Several other measures discussed and passed included training sessions for new councillors alongside current councillors.
Objections were raised with some proposals including a deferment on a bid to make training mandatory to be on certain committees.
Coun Hutchinson argued that it was the kind of “basic training essential for councillors to do their jobs, like finding out where council information is”.
But other councillors expressed concerns it would put people off joining the committees.
Coun Hutchinson also told the committee that the parish council only had one member of staff available at the moment and had hoped to employ more but needed a council with enough members to make decisions to do so.
She said that they’d been delighted with the number of applications they’d had for roles and that a shortlist had been drawn up last month, but the council had been unable to ratify any hires and it would be unlikely new staff could start until “the end of the summer”.
The Voice understands numerous complaints of bullying have been made by and for various councillors and staff.
A decision of South Holland District Council’s Monitoring Officer to Coun Wiltshire asking him to apologise to the clerk Jan Hersey, be removed from the HR committee and take part in training after allegations of harassment and bullying has been seen by The Voice.
References to a finding by the officer were referenced in the meeting, but it was not stated what that was referring to.
Concern was expressed that an email in relation to it had been shared on social media.
“It can only have come from three people,” Coun Wiltshire said.
The council did unanimously vote a resolution through that councillors should abide by Monitoring Officer decisions.
In a statement to open the meeting Mrs Hersey though said “good progress” was being made on bullying and harassment citing a national code of conduct the council signed up to last year.
“Throughout the sector there’s growing concerns about the impact of bullying, harassment and intimidation is having on our council, councillors and our staff,” she said. “The Society of Local Council clerks say good progress is being made across organisation work stream.
“They are working hard to analyse some of the cases of bullying and harassment in the sector to identify tools and opportunity for poor behaviour and provide support where it has happened.”
Some members of the public were left disappointed that the usual ‘open’ session where councillors take questions was not carried out.
As the meeting opened Coun Hutchinson said that was due to advice they’d taken from the Lincolnshire Association of Local Council with regards to purdah council restrictions.
The meeting was also told that two members were set to be co-opted on to the council after the May 4 election.
Not enough members have come forward to trigger an actual vote.