Fears council's inquiry into leader John Beesley will be a 'whitewash'

Dorset Police this week dropped its probe into Cllr Beesley, but he still faces some form of civil inquiry into the original complaint made against him by 10 Conservative councillors in April 2017.

One of these, Cllr Nick Rose, claimed that if the complaint was handled internally by the standards board under chairman Cllr Beverley Dunlop it would be "corrupt and a whitewash".

"The council's method of operation, which I have come to hate, will be to try and keep everything behind closed doors," he said.

"I have absolutely no confidence in our standards committee. As much as I love Beverley she spoke out in favour of the redundancy package for (former council chief executive) Tony Williams and has shown she is not impartial.

"It would be a huge conflict of interest.

"The whole point of the complaint is that the leader bullied council officers into turning in a direction he was setting."

Cllr Beesley was alleged to have breached the council's code of conduct by bullying staff, compromising the integrity of the planning department and failing to properly declare his financial interests.

The complainants have claimed Mr Williams was intending to launch an independent investigation prior his redundancy. Cllr Stephen Bartlett said: "Tony Williams was very concerned about the planning system being compromised. He was a man of great integrity. These issues need to be investigated."

Cllr Bartlett said the police decision to drop the case had to be accepted, but "the investigation has already had an effect in influencing the choice of leader for the shadow executive committee". The probe is thought to have been behind the appointment of Poole leader Cllr Janet Walton to the role over Cllr Beesley.

"I think it has always been understood that after the police inquiry there would be an independent investigation into the code of conduct issues, I would be very surprised if it was handled by the standards board alone," he said.

"At the full council meeting after the complaint was made a number of people stood up and gave their support in public to John. One of those was the current chairman of the standards board."

Concern has also been raised about council monitoring officer Tanya Coulter handling the complaint, since Cllr Beesley has stated that the advice he followed on declarations of pecuniary interest came from her.

Cllr Dunlop defended the impartiality of her committee. She said expected to receive the complaint "fairly swiftly" and the possibility of an independent inquiry was "a matter for the committee to decide".

"What will now need to be determined is what elements of the complaint remain which could be relayed to the committee," she said.

"It is very important that people recognise the integrity and fairness of the standards process. Every single complaint goes through exactly the same process and has the same criteria applied to it.

"It makes no difference if it is the leader of the council."

In a statement, Ms Coulter said: "The council will be considering the matter under the adopted local arrangements for investigation of complaints against councillors.

"We are in the process of doing this in liaison with all parties, and until the format and arrangements have been agreed it would be inappropriate to comment further.

"It should be noted that the process adopted by the council does not mean that any investigation will be carried out internally – the process provides for an investigation stage and this can be undertaken by someone external to and independent of the council."