Slandered by Parish Council - no case to answer says governance

[beardsince1978]

My parish council held a meeting at which I was slandered in front of 22 people. This slander was minuted and the minutes published on the web. I have complained to the monitoring officer about this. The decision has just come back as "no further action". The argument is that monitoring officer only has jurisdiction over individual councillors. Since minutes do not record what a specific individual said then my complaint is about the Parish Council as a body and therefore outside the jurisdiction of the monitoring officer. My opinion was that they were all guilty of it as no councillor at that meeting made any objection to the slander and indeed at the next parish meeting those councillors all must have approved the minutes so approved the libel in the minutes. I therefore put in mirror complaints about all the councillors listed as present at that meeting citing collectively responsibility..

This seems daft as it is like claim directors are not responsible for the actions of the company. Any suggestions or legal argument, precedents to support my complaint that the councillors are responsible?

[Setmefree3]

Parish Councils adopted their own code of conduct, so contact your local parish council and ask them for a copy of their code of conduct. I’m surprised that the monitoring officer has distanced from this, unless things have changed over the years.

The Monitoring Officer has the specific duty to ensure that the Council, its officers, and its Elected Councillors, maintain the highest standards of conduct in all they do. The Monitoring Officer's legal basis is found in Section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, as amended by Schedule 5, paragraph 24, of the Local Government Act 2000.

[Setmefree3]

Can you post up the minutes?

[beardsince1978]

Thanks for the references I'll look them up. I'd rather not post the minutes as that would be spreading the slander. Suffice to say that they accused me of a "deliberate" act contrary to planning law which carries a fine.

I believe that the monitoring officer is operating under the Localism Act 2011, section 27, Duty to promote and maintain high standards of conduct - which talks only about members, not the council as a whole and in section 28, Code of Conduct, it says “allegation” means a written allegation a member of a parish council has failed to comply with the parish council's code of conduct. I think the acts you refer to are only for county councils etc, not parish councils, at least that is the way my monitoring officer is interpreting the law. The MO can only investigate complaints about parish councillors as individuals not the parish council as a whole (which is why I did mirror complaints for all the councillors).

It seems obvious to me that the councillors must be responsible for the actions of the Parish Council, otherwise the MO is joke. All councillors have to do is cover their tracks so no one person is identifiable as the source of the illegal act and then they can do what they like.

[Setmefree3]

Concentrate on your parish councils code of conduct. I take it you are stating that no deliberate act has been made by yourself, hence slander.

[ostell]

But now they have been published then this turns to libel.

[Setmefree3]

But now they have been published then this turns to libel.

Totally agree, that’s why I suggested posting it up (redacted) so people can see the allegations made.

[beardsince1978]

If I post a redacted copy there is no libel to see, if I post the libel copy then I'm spreading the libel which weakens any case.

I've looked for a solicitor to take on a civil slander/libel case on no-win-no-fee but all but one was not interested and the one that would consider such only would commit to writing a letter on no-win-no-fee and the the Parish Councillors are such that I think they would ignore such a letter. The fact of the matter is that the solicitors didn't see the potential for a large payout to pay their fees so weren't interested. I have also tried looking for a human rights solicitor on no-win-no-fee but found the same. The human rights case is perhaps more certain. Human Rights act applies to Parish Councils and case law says defamation breaches article 8 of that act.

The PC wrote that my action was a "a deliberate attempt to mislead". That is total unsupportable. For starters I am not a planning expert so they would need to prove it was deliberate and not accidental. Secondly, planning applications are validated so any blame would lie with planning too. Thirdly, this issue was discussed with planning and I have an email from planning saying everything was now in order, so how can I be attempting to mislead.

[wales01man]

With respect if you won a case in Court what would you expect to get? Money an apology or dismissal and barring of the person who said this or the entire Council?

[beardsince1978]

Well, money is always nice but I'm more concerned with clearing my name. What I think is reasonable is a public apology and a correction of the false statements and spin that the Parish Council have used to confuse people. Dismissal and barring would be a bonus, as would money, but all I really want is my reputation back. So if a solicitor took 100% of any award I could accept that.

[des8]

One other point to bear in mind is that (1)A statement is not defamatory unless its publication has caused or is likely to cause serious harm to the reputation of the claimant..

An untrue statement is not necessarily slanderous... the element of serious harm to the reputation is required.
Does the statement that one tried to mislead planning actually seriously harm a person's reputation?
If one is a developer or involved in planning matters certainly, but otherwise?

I'm just thinking of the cost implications if it were to go to court and fail on the definition of slander

[lgfa92]

There may be scope to make a complaint to the standards committee and then the Local Government Ombudsman but it is limited to how the complaint was handled rather than the actual issue.

Can the Ombudsman look at a complaint about a parish or town councillor?

No. A complaint about the conduct of a parish or town councillor should be made to the council itself. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, your local Standards Committee (usually run by whichever local council collects your council tax) may consider your complaint.

We may then be able to look at how the Standards Committee considered your complaint about a parish councillor. But we will not investigate the issues that prompted your complaint.

[beardsince1978]

There may be scope to make a complaint to the standards committee...

Standards committee no longer exists I believe. The complaint goes to the monitor officer which is what I have done. In my case the MO has decided that the complaint is with the Parish Council as a body, not the councillors and the Parish Council body is outside the remit of the MO which is just the councillors breaking the code of conduct. Hence "no further action to be taken".

What I need is something to legally link the Parish Council body with the councillors and thus push the unlawful behaviour by the Parish Council body back onto the councillors. The Parish Council body is in breach of human rights act since defamation is against article 8 BTW. Or something to disprove that the Parish Council as a body can have it acts separated from the actions of the councillors. I would have thought they are jointly and severally liable which I think is the case for fraud comited by a Parish Council (anyone have some refs for that?).

[Setmefree3]

This is just one example of a parish council’s code of conduct under the localism act.

When acting in your capacity as a Member
1) You must act solely in the public interest and should never improperly confer an advantage or disadvantage on any person or act to gain financial or other material benefits for yourself, your family, a friend, a close associate, an employer or a business carried on by you.
2) You must not place yourself under a financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that may influence you in the performance of your official duties.
3) You must not disclose any information given to you as a Member in breach of any confidence.
4) You must not bring your office or your Authority into disrepute.
5) You must treat others with respect and promote equality by not discriminating unlawfully against any person, and by treating people with respect, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity. You should respect the impartiality and integrity of the authority’s statutory officers and its other employees.
When carrying out your public duties you must make all choices, such as making public appointments, awarding contracts or recommending individuals for rewards or benefits on merit.
You are accountable for your decisions to the public and you must co-operate fully with whatever scrutiny is appropriate to your office.
You must be as open as possible about your decisions and actions and the decisions and actions of your authority and should be prepared to give reasons for those decisions and actions.
You must declare any private interests, both disclosable pecuniary interests and any other registerable interests, that relate to your public duties and must take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest, including registering and declaring interests in a manner which conforms with the procedures set out below.
You must ensure, when using or authorising the use by others of the resources of your authority, that such resources are not used improperly for political purposes (including party political purposes) and you must have regard to any applicable Local Authority Code of Publicity made under the Local Government Act 1986.
You must promote and support high standards of conduct when serving in your office

[ploddertom]

How long ago did this initially happen?
What method do your PC use for recording the minutes?