Six formal complaints made against SBC elected members in 2022/23

Six formal complaints were made against elected members on Scottish Borders Council in 2022/23, it has emerged.
Scottish Borders Council headquarters.Scottish Borders Council headquarters.
Scottish Borders Council headquarters.

Four complaints were made directly to SBC’s monitoring officer, a meeting of the local authority’s Standards Committee will be informed when they meet on Thursday, January 18.

One complaint was made by an SBC councillor and three were made by members of the public.

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Three of the complaints related to allegations of what is referred to as ‘disrespect’ and one related to alleged failure to declare an interest.

In three complaints, following investigation by the monitoring officer, no further action was taken.

In the remaining complaint there was an attempted mediation between the parties but this did not resolve the matter, which was then referred by the monitoring officer to the Ethical Standards Commissioner (ESC) and is still being considered.

Additionally, over the same period, the monitoring officer was made aware of two other complaints made directly to the ESC. One was made by an elected member and one by a member of the public.

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One related to an alleged breach of a judicial decision. That was investigated by the ESC and no breach was found to have occurred.

The other related to alleged failure to declare an interest with that matter still ongoing.

The identities of the elected members against whom the complaints were made is not disclosed in the report.