To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence.

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 2 March 2020.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 2 March 2020 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

To answer any public questions. A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice. The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the work of this Committee.

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Committee or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

There were no public questions.

To answer any Member questions.

There were no Member questions.

To answer any questions from Parish / Town Councillors.

There were no Parish or Town Council Member questions.

To consider an update on Code of Conduct complaints and feedback on the complaints process.

The Committee considered a report, set out at Agenda pages 11 to 16, which gave details of progress relating to Code of Conduct complaints since the previous meeting.

The report stated that, since the previous meeting (March 2020), three complaints had been resolved and three new complaints had been received. Andrew Moulton (Monitoring Officer) reported that a further complaint had been received since the publication of the Agenda.

Appended to the report was a summary of progress against each of the complaints.

Andrew commented on the increasing number of complaints relating to alleged misuse of social media. There had also been a number of contacts during the lockdown period which had not resulted in formal complaints.

In the ensuing discussion, Members raised the following points:

Prue Bray commented on the increasing number of complaints which appeared to be politically motivated. These complaints did not come from WBC Members but there appeared to be a discernible trend.

Prue also referred to the ongoing LGA consultation on a Model Code of Conduct. Andrew stated that the LGA consultation may help to inform the consultation on the Council’s Code of Conduct agreed at the previous meeting. The Council’s consultation had been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but would be undertaken shortly.

Imogen Shepherd-Dubey commented on the timeframe for investigating Code of Conduct complaints and requested a speedier resolution.

John Halsall commented on the number of complaints over the past year which had resulted in no action being taken. He also gave examples of local issues which had become more contentious such as conflict between cyclists and pedestrians.

RESOLVED: That the update report on Code of Conduct complaints be noted.