Ferryhill Town Councillors encouraged to improve conduct

7:20am Saturday 2nd February 2013 in News Photograph of the Author By Catherine Priestley, Chief Reporter (Sedgefield)

COUNCILLORS are to be given a lesson in being nice to one another after a series of complaints about their conduct.

Durham County Council has called for a meeting with all members of Ferryhill Town Council to discuss a series of behavioural issues that have arisen from recent meetings.

Deputy monitoring officer David Taylor will invite all councillors to a meeting to try to establish ‘why differences of opinion between members cannot be entertained and debated in a civilised manner’.

He hopes to ‘focus members’ attention on serving constituents rather than pursuing long running arguments on how the council is run or engaging in personal feuds’.

Mr Taylor’s attempt at resolution comes after Durham County Council’s standards committee received seven complaints regarding the conduct of members of Ferryhill Town Council during October and November last year.

Four of the complaints directly related to a town council meeting in October when police were called to Ferryhill Town Hall after members voted to exclude two councillors for inappropriate conduct.

The two councillors involved left the town hall peacefully.

Mr Taylor considered allegations that members breached the council’s code of conduct by failing to behave in such a way that a reasonable person would regard as respectful or would regard as bullying or intimidatory.

He ruled that the behaviour was not acceptable even if the councillors genuinely believed the process being followed was unconstitutional.

He said a clear line has to be drawn between have respect for others and the freedom to disagree and comments. He will encourage them to express ideas or arguments as part and parcel of political debate without aiming comments at a person and their personal characteristics.

Mr Taylor said: “In this instance, the sanctions available to the standards committee do not warrant investing time in a formal investigation and hearing process. “It will hopefully be more fruitful to use that time in an attempt to mediate the differences between the opposing parties.”

A meeting had been scheduled for January 23 but was postponed due to bad weather and will be rearranged.

Comments (8)

9:46am Sat 2 Feb 13

jsrace says...

I myself have been on the receiving end of a tirade of verbal abuse from one of the F/hill female councillors, in front of witnesses because I used “Permitted development Laws” to build a fence around my property! Unfortunately for her it took away her Friday personal parking space to do her shopping in the village. I wont go into names because The whole fiasco is going higher and further to the point where I am pretty certain it will end up in the courts, where the whole story will come out.

Perhaps then We will see if they are so high and mighty and above Us ordinary F/hill residents.
I myself have been on the receiving end of a tirade of verbal abuse from one of the F/hill female councillors, in front of witnesses because I used “Permitted development Laws” to build a fence around my property! Unfortunately for her it took away her Friday personal parking space to do her shopping in the village. I wont go into names because The whole fiasco is going higher and further to the point where I am pretty certain it will end up in the courts, where the whole story will come out. Perhaps then We will see if they are so high and mighty and above Us ordinary F/hill residents. jsrace

1:13pm Sat 2 Feb 13

greenfinger says...

ferryhill is a dump and wants a full fence building around it to stop the people getting out!
ferryhill is a dump and wants a full fence building around it to stop the people getting out! greenfinger

1:24pm Sat 2 Feb 13

jsrace says...

greenfinger wrote:
ferryhill is a dump and wants a full fence building around it to stop the people getting out!
Take you finger out of your nose, it's poking too far into your brain.
[quote][p][bold]greenfinger[/bold] wrote: ferryhill is a dump and wants a full fence building around it to stop the people getting out![/p][/quote]Take you finger out of your nose, it's poking too far into your brain. jsrace

5:06pm Sat 2 Feb 13

greenfinger says...

i learnt to pick my nose when i was driving through ferryhill. everyone was doing it, most were eating theirs! DUMP
i learnt to pick my nose when i was driving through ferryhill. everyone was doing it, most were eating theirs! DUMP greenfinger

5:52pm Sat 2 Feb 13

BernieAt_Home says...

With the local elections coming soon it should be interesting to see exactly what the people of Ferryhill think of the going on's at their Town Hall.
With the local elections coming soon it should be interesting to see exactly what the people of Ferryhill think of the going on's at their Town Hall. BernieAt_Home

6:03pm Sat 2 Feb 13

greenfinger says...

are a bunch of smacked up weed smoking jobless louts going to give a flying flinders tho? i very much doubt it, they'll be more interested where they're going to score their next hit from. a truly dyer place! bulldoze it and start again.
are a bunch of smacked up weed smoking jobless louts going to give a flying flinders tho? i very much doubt it, they'll be more interested where they're going to score their next hit from. a truly dyer place! bulldoze it and start again. greenfinger

1:52am Sun 3 Feb 13

Graeme_r says...

I don't believe in tarring everyone in Ferryhill the way greenfinger does with the same brush. I think the local electorate should be asking themselves if Ferryhill Town Council is worth the additional cost i.e. the precept that is added to Council Tax bills. What extra services do FTC provide that Durham County Council can't or won't. Do their services and functions justify the cost? There is an option to call for a governance review.
I don't believe in tarring everyone in Ferryhill the way greenfinger does with the same brush. I think the local electorate should be asking themselves if Ferryhill Town Council is worth the additional cost i.e. the precept that is added to Council Tax bills. What extra services do FTC provide that Durham County Council can't or won't. Do their services and functions justify the cost? There is an option to call for a governance review. Graeme_r

1:53am Sun 3 Feb 13

jsrace says...

I live in Ferryhill and never once have I ever taken drugs and have worked all my working life, like the majority of the decent sorts in Ferryhill. I would have thought the loutish uneducated drug taking type you describe would type the very sort of bile that you have typed above.
I live in Ferryhill and never once have I ever taken drugs and have worked all my working life, like the majority of the decent sorts in Ferryhill. I would have thought the loutish uneducated drug taking type you describe would type the very sort of bile that you have typed above. jsrace

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