A PANEL of three councillors will this week investigate code of conduct claims involving Ferndown Town Council.

The meeting, which may be open to the public, is being held at County Hall, Dorchester this morning, July 7.

All of the details of the two complaints have been removed from public documents by Dorset Council and the entire business of the panel is marked as ‘exempt’.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service has requested that the documents be made public also asking that the hearing should not be held in private as is currently recommended.

Document for ‘complaint 1’ runs to 160 pages and ‘complaint 2’ to almost 120 pages. Neither can be seen by the public or press with the reason given only that the complaints ‘relate to an individual.’

Minutes from the Ferndown Town Council meeting in January 2020 held at the Barrington Centre offer no information on what may have transpired although there was a close vote, by a margin of one, on the council’s budget for the year ahead and a motion to exclude the public from a private session at the end of the evening to discuss exempt business, which included the listing “mayor’s update on a personal matter.”

An extraordinary meeting of the council was held earlier in the same month when the only business, also discussed in private, was the Barrington Centre draft budget. The minutes show there was a 12-1 vote to agree that the Barrington Centre precept (budget) be 20 per cent of the existing precept.

The Dorset Council panel is scheduled for the main council chamber at County Hall, Dorchester at 9.30am on Wednesday, July 7.  It will made up of Cllr Matt Hall (Sherborne), Cllr Bill Trite (Swanage), and Cllr Richard Biggs (Dorchester). The panel is expected to hear an audio recording of a meeting of the Ferndown town council held in January 2020.

In August 2020, Dorset Council decided that code of conduct claims involving several east Dorset councillors would not go ahead after a preliminary investigation.

The unitary authority's panel decided that none of the councillors has a case to answer and one complaint had been settled by an apology.

Among those named in the paperwork were Julie Robinson, Mike Parkes, Harry Worth, Cathy Lugg, all Conservatives, and independent councillor Paul Hanson Graham.

A panel of three Dorset Council members set up to consider the findings of a preliminary investigation ruled that none of the complaints merited a full investigation and hearing would not be taken any further.

At the request of the Local Democracy Reporting Service the council later released the key paperwork involved with the complaints, but had not released documents at the time.

It involved an alleged breach of confidence about the Barrington Centre in Penny’s Walk dating back to May 28th, 2019, with a claim against one councillor where it was said the town council would be taking over the centre.

Director of PramaLIFE Christopher Beale had complained about what he said was a breach of confidence claiming it had caused concern among the staff and embarrassment for the company. The information was said to involve commercially sensitive information relating to a possible transfer by PramaLIFE of the Barrington Centre to the town council’s management.

The panel at the time heard that the councillor involved argued that the information was in the public domain and was not confidential, so he saw no reason not to discuss it and had raised the issue despite being asked not to.

A second complaint alleged the misuse of town council resources. The panel heard that this involved allowing a Conservative group use of the Ferndown Town Council offices, including its photocopier.

The panel heard that the use had been properly sanctioned by a town council officer and was legitimate with the costs clearly invoiced, stating that it was for the Christchurch and East Dorset Conservative Party.

“Each of these four (councillors) paid for this printing: They didn’t sneak into the office late at night and start using the photo-copier. It was open and above board and quite clearly, in my view, sanctioned by a town council officer. There is no mis-use of resources at all. What has been done has been paid for,” said solicitor Roger Green at the time. He said the four councillors involved had rebutted the allegation of misuse of council resources.