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Note Of Decision Web Version

Complaint no. LA/Fa/141 concerning an alleged contravention of the Councillors' Code of Conduct by Councillor Andrew Graham of Falkirk Council

1. Complaint number LA/Fa/141 alleged a contravention of the Councillors' Code of Conduct ("the Code") by Councillor Andrew Graham ("the respondent").

2. It was alleged that the respondent had contravened the Code, in particular, the key principle in section 2 of the Code relating to Duty.

3. The person complaining ("the complainant") Mr A, a property developer, alleged that he had tried to contact the respondent who is his local councillor but that he was never able to make contact by telephone. Accordingly, he sent a letter to the respondent enclosing a copy of a planning application which he was making to Falkirk Council. He received a reply from the respondent in which the respondent advised him that the Code prevented him (the respondent) from taking a view on a planning application or meeting with a developer. The complainant alleged that he wrote to the respondent seeking clarification of the provision of the Code which prevented the respondent meeting him but that he received no reply.

4. In a written response Councillor Graham refuted the allegation and claimed that he had acted completely within the provisions of the Code. He wrote that he took advice (from the Monitoring Officer of the Council) to ensure that he did not act in contravention of the Code.

5. The Monitoring Officer confirmed that the respondent sought and obtained her advice in relation to the most appropriate manner in which to respond to the complainant's request. She also advised that a copy of the complainant's letter to the respondent was passed by the respondent to the Monitoring Officer's Service with a request that a copy of the Code of Conduct be passed to the complainant. The Monitoring Officer advised that that request appeared to have been inadvertently overlooked in her Service albeit the respondent had been entitled to assume that it had been dealt with and that a response had accordingly gone to the complainant.

6. The Monitoring Officer also made the helpful observation that while not being a member of the Regulatory Committee (which determines planning applications) Councillor Graham was Depute Convener of the Environment and Heritage Committee which was the policy development committee in terms of planning matters. Training on the Code of Conduct had been made available to all members of the Council and members were particularly aware of their need not only to observe the Code but to be seen as observing it. The Code states explicitly that it is each member's responsibility to comply with its terms. In that respect, it was, in the view of the Monitoring Officer, available to a member to consider whether to meet a constituent on a particular occasion having regard to what he determined to be his own interest and obligations under the terms of the Code. On this occasion Councillor Graham declined to meet with the constituent in the knowledge that there was an existing planning application under consideration. The Monitoring Officer further noted that that would seem to be among the range of responses which was available to that councillor to make.

7. It was clear that the respondent in dealing with this matter not only sought and obtained advice but also took account of the terms of all the relevant sections of the Code. In the circumstances he was entitled to decline to meet the complainant and it was clear that it was not Councillor Graham's fault that the complainant did not received a copy of the Code.

8. Having considered all the information I concluded that Councillor Graham had not contravened the Councillors' Code of Conduct. Furthermore, I formed the view that he had acted wholly properly in his dealings both with regard to the application and the complainant.

D Stuart Allan,
Chief Investigating Officer.
Forsyth House
Innova Campus
Rosyth Europarc
Rosyth
Fife
KY11 2UU
11 March 2005