Council members' behaviour lessons

Members of a troubled north Shropshire town council have been ordered to undergo behavioural training by fed up authority watchdogs, who have been inundated with complaints about their conduct.

Whitchurch Town Council members have been told to take the compulsory training to deal with conflict by the Standards Board for England.It follows a series of complaints made about the council about behaviour at meetings.

In less than four years the Board has received 35 complaints, as well as five complaints made this year by council clerk Peter Martin.

Three councillors alone notched up complaints from 17 Whitchurch residents last year.

Members are now to be trained in conflict resolution, and their duties as councillors.They will also all need to revise their registered interests and issues affecting a councillor's judgement.

Standards Board spokeswoman Joanne Sheppard said the direction was issued after investigations into the alleged misconduct of council member Andrew Richardson revealed there were "wider ethical issues at Whitchurch Town Council".

She said: "I can confirm we issued a direction to the monitoring officer of Whitchurch Town Council. This was in response to an allegation we had received about the conduct of Mr Richardson.

"Initially we referred the allegation for investigation. However, the earliest stages of the investigation suggested the alleged conduct was symptomatic of wider ethical issues and that these issues would not be effectively resolved by investigating and making a finding against an individual member or members.

"Consequently we stopped the investigation and issued a direction instead."

A letter from the Standards Board given to councillors said most of the complaints referred to a row over proposals for skate park in the town.

Mr Martin said he hoped the training would benefit the council.

"I think anyone can improve with training, it is always a useful tool at the end of the day," he said.