Denmead Parish Council is subject of 'damning report' into bad behaviour

The report has laid bare behaviour described as; demoralising, insulting, humiliating and patronising, shameful, spiteful and 'soul destroying for all those involved’.

In an unusual step, Winchester City Council - which includes Denmead Parish Council's patch within its boundaries - is monitoring the parish council and will continue to make sure it does not relapse into infighting.

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A report written by the city council's monitoring officer Sharon Evans, which has been discussed by Winchester's audit and governance committee, revealed damning findings,

Ms Evans said there was ‘true concern’ felt towards Denmead as ‘relationships had broken down’.

She added: ‘Intervention, which is an unusual intervention, was taken and this investigation was commissioned to help us find a way forward.’

City council documents state that no one involved with DPC can consider themselves ‘beyond reproach’ in the context of the complaints.

It adds that the complaints are a symptom of ‘bigger issues and problems at DPC’ and that code of conduct is a ‘blunt tool to address issues that are often cultural’.

Winchester's audit committee discussed ‘vast’ numbers of complaints made against Denmead which resulted in a ‘good deal of animosity’ amongst councillors and employees.

Committee chairman, councillor Neil Cutler said: ‘One of my concerns - I live very close to Denmead - is that it doesn’t seem to be widely known and that they’re still not being very transparent.

‘I think that this report is pretty damning so it’s understandable but I couldn’t find any reference on their website on any of their agendas that this has been discussed in public - I may be mistaken.

‘Denmead has the biggest precept of any parish council in the district, it deals with a lot of money and clearly, the governance is not good.’

Of the 12 complaints made against Denmead councillors, five were upheld for being in breach of the code of conduct.

A Winchester spokesperson said the complaints were made by councillors and the code found to be breached related to behaviour.

The code requires ‘valuing your colleagues and officers of the council and engaging with them in an appropriate manner’.

Formal letters of grievances exposed accounts of a parish councillor demoralising, insulting, humiliating and patronising members of the public and councillors ‘on a regular basis’.

The treatment of a member of the public by the councillor during a meeting was described as ‘shameful, spiteful and soul destroying for all those involved’.

In another letter of grievance, the complainant stated they endured a ‘personal and vicious attack from many councillors during an exempt meeting.

The draft investigative report found it to be 'evident' that the complaints are 'central to the issues at DPC' namely the 'significant disharmony and malfunction within the council'.

The report concluded by saying that Denmead residents have not been ‘served well’ by the parish council in recent times.

A Denmead Parish Council spokesperson was bullish about the situation.

They said the parish council has been 'liaising with Winchester since autumn 2020 regarding code of conduct matters', adding: 'None of these breaches involved the chairman or vice-chairman, or any chairman of committees.

'Further to an interim report being issued, we have, through proper council processes, instigated a rolling review programme so that all policies are reviewed on a rotational basis and a programme of training for both employees and councillors is in place.

'This work has been ongoing, for example, DPC adopted a member/officer protocol at full council on January 12, 2022 and we will implement programmes and processes as necessary to meet our statutory duties.

'We welcome the findings and recommendations of the report and we will continue to work with both Winchester and other organisations to ensure that we deliver the best service to the people of Denmead.

'The most recent update was sent to Winchester two weeks ago and received a very positive response in that they were surprised to see how much we have achieved and that they look forward to working with us.'