THERE will be an independent investigation into the complaint against Bournemouth council leader John Beesley.

According to an email seen by the Echo, from council monitoring officer Tanya Coulter to the 10 councillors who signed the complaint, an independent “external investigator” will be appointed to carry out an inquiry.

The email says: “She (standards board chairman Cllr Beverley Dunlop) has asked me to commission an external investigator with no relationship to the council to undertake this work, and I am in the process now of identifying a suitable independent person, and looking to finalise this next week upon my return from leave.

“This investigation will consider the potential breaches of the code which have been identified in the written complaint, which are the matters excluding the allegation of failing to disclose a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (DPI) as this is a criminal matter and has been investigated by the police.”

The original complaint alleges the council leader breached the borough’s code of conduct by bullying staff, bringing the council into disrepute, compromising the integrity of the planning department and failing to properly declare his financial interests.

Some of the signatories have called for the inquiry to be conducted by a panel rather than one investigator, and have said it must consider all aspects of the complaint including those already considered by Dorset Police as part of its 18-month long probe.

One, who wished to remain anonymous, said the DPI aspect was "an essential part of the whole complaint".

"The suggestion that this is not going to be included in the external investigation is absurd and frankly unacceptable."

The force dropped its investigation earlier this month after the Crown Prosecution Service said there was “insufficient evidence” to meet its criteria – which requires a reasonable probability of a successful conviction.

The complainant said: "The fact that the prosecution service has decided there is no public interest at their very high hurdle doesn't mean it is not a very serious issue to be discussed at a much lower hurdle."

Cllr Beesley declined to comment on the allegations, saying this could “jeopardise fair consideration of the matter through the due and established processes”.

“The appointment of an independent person is exactly in line with the council’s procedures for dealing with the outstanding allegations of breach of the council’s code of conduct which do not allege a criminal offence,” he said.

“As a result of their 18 month inquiry, it has already been acknowledged that the police have found no substance to any of the allegations which they were investigating.”

In recent weeks some signatories of the complaint told the Echo they feared an internal probe would be a “whitewash”, noting that two members of the board had publicly called Cllr Beesley’s critics “liars” and “assassins” at a meeting last year when the controversy first began.