Reading Council to change how it investigates complaints after 14-month case

Reading Borough Council (RBC) is also considering tightening rules about who can make complaints, after concerns were raised about people complaining on behalf of others.

The proposed changes are in response to an incident during an Audit & Governance committee meeting in September 2019, when councillor Tony Page, deputy leader of RBC, called campaigner Colin Lee a “coward” and said he does not have the “guts” to stand for election.

READ MORE: Council deputy leader forced to apologise 14 months after calling campaigner ‘coward’ during public meeting

An investigation was completed 14 months later, in November 2020, ruling that Cllr Page should apologise to Mr Lee.

The complaint was made by Jason Collie – a local resident and journalist who was attending the meeting – accusing Cllr Tony Page of bullying.

RBC’s Standards Committee  discussed the incident and the investigation last week (March 10), with councillors raising concerns about the time it took to complete the investigation and the “unusual” nature of the complaint.

'Somebody trying to stir things up'

Councillor Deborah Edwards said: “I am concerned because this particular incident was resolved quite easily.

“Those complaints need to be addressed quickly and hands shaken.

“A third party making a complaint about something that is already resolved, for me that is somebody trying to stir things up.”

However, Mr Lee has not accepted Cllr Page’s apology and even suggested he should have been stripped of his roles, suggesting the incident was not resolved prior to Mr Collie’s complaint.

Cllr Tony Page

Councillor Jo Lovelock, former leader of the council, added: “It seems slightly odd to me that someone would make a complaint on [Mr Lee’s] behalf.

“It’s difficult, when you know some of the history of other complaints that have been around though the years, not to come to the conclusion that there was an axe to grind somewhere.

“However, Cllr Page has accepted he shouldn’t have said, he has apologised, and I think we should all move on from that.”

All councillors agreed that stronger timescales are needed for resolving complaints.

'Don't shoot the messenger'

Responding to the comments, Mr Collie said: “Any councillor who feels it is appropriate for an elected representative to abuse a member of the public in a public meeting really needs to consider their position because Reading would be better off without that type of attitude.

“I would suggest they are not the type of people we want representing this town. There is no axe to grind. I was just disgusted at the behaviour at a public meeting.

“Don’t shoot the messenger.”

Mr Collie said the findings of the investigation showed the system is not broken except for the fact it took 14 months to act, raising concerns at plans to limit the ability for people to make complaints on behalf of others.

He added: “It doesn’t matter who the complaint comes from. It is whether a councillor breaks the code.”

'Wiggle room'

Michael Graham, the council’s monitoring officer said more complicated code of conduct cases can take up to six months to resolve but should not take longer than that, proposing a timescale of three-six months.

Reading Borough Council offices

Addressing the debate on whether people should be able to complain on behalf of others, he said: “I think if the complainant was here, he would probably say there was a public interest in him making the complaint, evidenced by the fact after the investigation a breach was found and Cllr Page accepted that and made the apology in accordance with the report.

“Ordinarily, if words are directed to a person, it would be that person who would be expected to complain, unless there are some exceptional circumstances.

“I think we’ve always got to allow for some kind of exceptional circumstances or some kind of overriding public interest. READ MORE: No complaints’ – Council leader refutes Reading Momentum claims of bullying

“We can’t rule out the possibility that at some point in the future members of the public may well be offended in numbers about something a councillor says but the person to whom the words are directed does not make a response or complaint.

“In those circumstances, I think we have to allow ourselves a bit of wiggle room to say we will take a complaint.”

A new report will be brought to the next committee meeting proposing changes to the code of conduct for councillors to vote on.