Probe into complaints made about councillors in last year

Seven complaints in 10 months sparks process review

- Kerry Ashdown [e-mail]

LACK of communication with residents and an allegation of sharing untrue information on Facebook are among the complaints made about county councillors to the authority during the past year.

A complaint of 'intimidation and suppression' was made about one elected member, while another's conduct towards parish councillors sparked an investigation but no breaches of Staffordshire County Council's Code of Conduct for Members were found in either case.

Seven complaints were made between June 2024 and March 2025, in relation to six councillors, a report to the authority's Audit and Standards Committee revealed.

There were fewer complaints than the 15 made between June 2023 and May 2024, however. Governance and support manager Simon Humble said: "Last year we may have described it as the naughty boys and girls report, but this year it's not too bad at all. Between June and December we only had one complaint received, which was concluded to have no breach.

"January to March, though, it did pick up ever so slightly, with six complaints received, and they relate to five members.

"Two of those cases have been concluded with no breaches of the code found, and there are still a few outstanding to be determined.

"There are a couple noted where communications have been very sadly lacking, others where communication had happened but maybe not to the extent the constituent had considered to be appropriate.