Cllr. Bentley attended. The minutes of the meeting are found at: Minutes.
Standards Complaints
So far in 2022 there have only been 3 complaints (compared to a total of 21 in 2021). No further action was required on all 3. There is one outstanding standards hearing to be held on 12th December.
Model Code of Conduct
At the date of the meeting 6 parish councils have adopted the model code of conduct including SWF Town Council. Councillor training sessions have taken place and more are scheduled
Dispensations
Following the adoption of the Model Code of Conduct by Chelmsford CC there is expected to be an increase in councillors applying for dispensations to speak and/or vote on agenda items for which they have a disclosed interest of some sort. A new request form and guidance document has been agreed by the committee to enable this to happen transparently.Register of Interests
Following monitoring and complaints about the completion and quality of councillors' register of interests forms, closer attention is being paid to all current councillors having completed the form and their parish/town clerk having sent it through to the monitoring officer. At present there are only 4 outstanding forms, none from SWF Town Councillors. (Councillors are under a legal obligation to register their interests with the City Council.) The quality of submissions will be our next target. We are expecting that following code of conduct training more councillors will be updating their forms to include interests they had previously not declared. We are also hoping to make it possible for councillors to fill in and submit the forms online in order to facilitate additions, changes or deletions to the declaration. Your SWF Town & City Councillor declarations of interest can be found at: Register of Councillor Interests.