Hadleigh council look to gag complaining residents

Under-fire Hadleigh town council is looking to avoid scrutiny and dealing with complaining residents by passing what would effectively be a gagging policy.

Councillors are being asked to pass a motion to be heard and discussed at a full town council meeting this Thursday (20 July) starting at 7pm

The unqualified town clerk Wendy Brame, sanctioned by the mayor Gordon McLeod, allowed the motion which will see the council decide what constitutes a persistent communicator and what to do about it..

Hadleigh town clerk Wendy Brame (Picture: Nub News)

A number of residents have already expressed concerns at the policy and have questioned its lawfulness.

One, who asked not to be named for fear of repercussions from the town council, told Nub News: "Genuine bullying and harassment is clearly wrong and needs to be dealt with appropriately.

"However, the clerk of a town council, and its representatives, should expect emails on a regular basis, it's part of the job.

"If the clerk and her staff can't cope that is a matter of poor management and lack of leadership.

"This policy is clearly designed to prevent residents querying what the council is doing with its money and offering any sort of scrutiny. It has the potential to be a blanket gagging order of its citizens, which is undemocratic and probably unlawful breaching all sorts of human rights and free speech.

"Perhaps if the council's staffing sub-committee had employed a qualified and experienced clerk in the first place we would not be in this situation."

Hadleigh mayor Gordon McLeod (Picture: Nyb News)

The clerk would also have the power to brand someone a bully if the timing of their email coincides with a busy period at the council office.

Another residents said: "To brand someone a bully under these circumstances is perverse and very unfair.

"There are not enough checks and balances to make sure members of the public are not judged inappropriately – eg. no guidance criteria or appeals process, purely subjective criteria of the councillors or unqualified staff."

It is argued that it is not down to untrained council staff to make these judgments, but instead a legal body such as the Babergh district council monitoring office , or the police would make that judgement.

Sanctions include :

"Being allowed to only communicate with one nominated member of the council or staff;
"Being allowed to only communicate in a specific way such as letter rather than email or telephone;"
Persistent communication on the same matter from multiple complainants would receive a templated response.

Another resident added: "I feel while it might be that a staff member or councillor might be sheltered from harassment, but this sanction restricts the complainer to everyone except one person – should one councillor be the arbiter of communications from some people? It is too restrictive of public right of access."

"So if more than one person rises an issue the clerk can deem them persistent and give a blanket answer to all future correspondence, without a council review. It goes directly against what a council is actually for.

"Overall, the policy is so bad is could be considered itself an attempt to bully its residents into not making complaints, or even contacting the council, about anything that some councillor or the clerk might deem inconvenient."

What is not mentioned in the policy is that it is a primal offence if, without reasonable excuse, a person with custody of a document (which is required by the national rules to be made available to the public).refuses to supply the whole or part of the document, or intentionally obstructs any other person/s from disclosing such a document.

If a person is found guilty of such a criminal offence, he/she may be fined up to £200.

Hadleigh's town council, which has lost it General Power of Competence, certificate after less than two-thirds of it members were actually elected, the rest just invited on, has been criticised for a wide range of its perceived failings.

These include:

A recent internal audit report highlighted a range of mistakes and failures of the town clerk, including not paying out minutes of confidential meetings, which she is required to do.
Accounting errors being allowed to be passed by councillors, despite a resident pointing them out and warning against voting for the report.
A failure to hold a proper, in depth investigation into the prejudicial actions of a councillor during an appointment process, which excluded a former long service soldier from being employed.
The payment of a significant amount to pay off a former clerk, with questions still being asked if it was done legally.

The council has been dubbed England's Most Useless (EMU)by satirical columnist Rowland Taylor's Ghost.

It is not yet clear if the policy applies to the media, although Hadleigh town council, its mayor and clerk have persistently failed to press requests for comments, clarifications or statements.

The clerk, mayor and councillors were all approached for comment on this policy, as we obliged to ask, but not one of your representatives responded to their right of reply.

Feel free to contact the councillor of your choice if you have a question or comment you would like to ask them about this potential gagging order.

McLeod, Gordon – Independent

Ward – Hadleigh North

Email: [email protected]

Bayliss, Diane – Independent

Ward – Hadleigh North

Email: [email protected]

Beggerow, Rolf – Hadleigh Together

Ward – Hadleigh South

Email: [email protected]

Elliott, Helen – Independent

Ward – Hadleigh South

Email: [email protected]