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28 June 2018 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7799 / Categories: Features , Public
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A cautionary tale

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Nicholas Dobson discusses a councillor grievance over conduct sanctions

  • A parish council acted unlawfully in purporting to impose sanctions on a councillor under its grievance procedure when the matter should have been handled under code of conduct provisions in the Localism Act 2011.

Can a parish council bypass the statutory local government conduct regime by imposing a range of extensive sanctions on a councillor under its grievance procedure? No, said Mrs Justice Cockerill on 15 May 2018 in R (Harvey) v Ledbury Town Council and Herefordshire County Council [2018] EWHC 1151 (Admin). For there she found that the parish council in question had had no power to act as it did. But even if the powers had been available, the council would still have acted unlawfully in terms of procedural and substantive unfairness.

Factual background

The case surrounded Councillor Elizabeth Harvey, a member of Ledbury Town Council (the council—legally a parish council under the Local Government Act 1972) who sat on all three of the council’s main committees (finance, planning and environment). Following a formal complaint of alleged bullying and intimidation against Cllr Harvey

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