A Hadleigh councillor at the centre of a Code of Conduct complaint has defended his decision not to attend any of the latest training sessions.

Gavin Talbot, as part of the Hadleigh Together political party, is alleged to have led a bullying campaign against former councillor Angela Gregg who had 17 complaints made against her, with none upheld.

She also claimed he had deliberately tried to embarrass her at a council meeting with an outside body.

Hadleigh town council arranged the training sessions by the Suffolk Association of Local Councils (SALC) following a recommendation by Babergh's monitoring officer, in conjunction with an independent panel, after an unusually high number of code of conduct complaints were made against councillors.

All the current crop of councillors, including those that have been in post since May 2019 elections, and those that had been voted in at this year's by-election, attended some or all the online sessions, except for Cllr Talbot.

Cllr Talbot, who works for Suffolk County Council, told Nub News he felt he did not need to attend any of the live training sessions as he had previous training.

He added: "Councillors have access to the training session powerpoint presentations and supporting materials, which I have reviewed just to make sure I haven't missed any updates in the training since I attended it originally.

"Like all councillors I have a copy of the Good Councillor Guide, which much of the training is based on, as well as having access to the NALC website to access their many resources, which I refer to as well where I am unsure on anything."

Former councillor Angela Gregg, who filed the code of conduct complaint, said: "Knowledge is power and in any job paid or voluntary, it is always good to keep updated especially with policies and procedures.

"Perhaps Cllr. Talbot should have attended training on what actually warrants a Code of Conduct."

As the table shows, four councillors, Rolf Beggerow, Lisa Gordon, Huw Roberts and Brian Loftus attended all the live sessions, with Cllrs Gordon McLeod and Andrew Knock missing just one each for personal reasons.

A town council spokesperson added: "The training could be completed by attending, watching the recording and/or reading the delegate packs, Councillors did not have to attend to complete the training. The non-attendees gave their apologies for various reasons."

• [I]Former councillor demands apology from town council after bullying allegation allegation[..I]