MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF CATFIELD PARISH COUNCIL HELD at 7pm ON WEDNESDAY 3rd MARCH 2021 via ZOOM. Attendance: Dr Bacon in the Chair, Mr Harris, Mr Hill, Ms Johnson, Mr Jordan, Mr Read, Mrs Wickens Richard Price (County Councillor) and six members of the public. Apologies for Absence: Mr Filgate, Mrs Walker, Mrs Grove-Jones (District Councillor), Mrs Millership (District Councillor). Dr Bacon stated that Mr Beckley was not in attendance because he had resigned from the Parish Council. Dr Bacon repeated what he had previously said in an email to all councillors that it is with great regret that Mr Beckley had resigned, that his calm and considered approach was invaluable for over thirty years as a Councillor, much of that time as Vice-Chairman. He could always be relied on to remind the Council of tasks that needed to be followed up and thoroughly examine the documentation we received and he took a leading role in setting up and maintaining the children’s playground and also in getting parish property registered with the Land Registry. Dr Bacon thought Mr Beckley would be a great loss to the Parish Council. Dr Bacon went on to say that creates a vacancy in two ways; one is for Vice-Chairman although that would come up for re-election in May. The other is a vacancy on the Parish Council. Mr Beckley had hoped his resignation would mean that the vacancy would be dealt with by the forthcoming by- election, but this is not the case. The clerk has notified the District Council of the vacancy, the notice has been put up on the notice boards and advertised on 24th February. If there is not a demand from ten parishioners for a formal by-election by 16th March, then the Parish Council would be able to co- opt. If there is a call for an election this would probably be sometime at the end of May. Dr Bacon said that there is the vacancy for Vice-Chairman until the AGM. Mrs Wickens proposed Mr Hill for Vice-Chairman. Mr Read stated that as there is only this meeting plus one more meeting would it not be better to wait until the AGM. Dr Bacon replied that Chair and Vice-Chair would be elected at the AGM but we need the formality of having a Vice-Chair in case the Chairman could not make it to a meeting. Mrs Wickens repeated that she proposed Mr Hill. Ms Johnson proposed Mr Read. Mr Jordan seconded Mrs Wickens’ proposal and Mr Harris seconded Ms Johnson’s proposal. Mr Harris asked on a point of order, this is not on the Agenda so should it not be on for the next meeting. Ms Johnson agreed. Ms Johnson stated that as we have an election coming up in May could the two be combined. Dr Bacon explained that a Vice-Chairman is needed for the remainder of the term. Mr Harris stated that the people not present may have a view on this and it should be postponed until the next meeting. This was agreed. Ms Johnson stated that if the Chairman was at the April meeting the clerk would start the meeting and then arrange for someone to stand in on that day. Declaration of Interests: Mr Harris updated the Parish Council from what he said last time. At the last meeting Mr Harris declared an interest and did not speak because of the code of complaint that had been made against him by the Chairman on 31st December for bullying the clerk. After the complaint he spent the first week of the ten working days he had been given in which to reply attempting to find out the criteria by which the complaint would be assessed but got no luck from the Deputy Monitoring Officer who was too busy to talk to him. Eventually, he spoke to the Independent Person on 14th January who said Mr Harris would find the relevant Code of Conduct on the Catfield Parish Council website but when he looked he found a blank and then said in those circumstances the North Norfolk Code must apply and he sent a copy to Mr Harris. This is based on the Nolan Principle and does not 527 mention bullying itself. Mr Harris returned his eighteen page defence report on 19th January within the specified ten working days. The Deputy Monitoring Officer was supposed to adjudicate within the following ten working days but when Mr Harris had heard nothing he spoke as a constituent to the District Councillor, Mrs Grove-Jones, on 4th February when he expressed his concern that there had been no decision in the proper time frame and also detailed his reservations about how the process itself was being conducted. Mr Harris warned that clearing his name was important to him and if the matter was not resolved he would reluctantly go to a lawyer. This would risk opening Pandora’s box which might prove easier to open than to close, the only tangible response appeared to be that a Code of Conduct suddenly appeared on the Catfield website which was quite different to North Norfolk’s as it specifically referred to bullying. Mr Harris stated that to him the inference was obvious, and he immediately appointed the lawyers Rogers and Norton who had represented the Parish Councillors in the recently well publicised Attleborough case. They wrote to the Deputy Monitoring Officer on Friday 12trh February and she speedily dropped the charge on Monday 15th February, after the weekend. The Chairman circulated this decision to the Parish Council on 16th February. Rogers and Norton have reviewed all the evidence, minutes, correspondence, recordings, etc and in their view there are a number of significant governance and procedural issues that need to be addressed which they summarised to the Deputy Monitoring Officer in their letter of 24th February, this has been circulated to the County, District and Parish Councillors who attend our meetings because Mr Harris is particularly concerned that these questions be answered and that no other councillor has to repeat the experience that he has had to over the last two months. Dr Bacon made a statement regarding that solicitor’s letter, because it involved a solicitor he read what he had to say. “You have all received a copy of a letter from Mr Harris’s solicitors, Rogers and Norton, to the Monitoring Officer at North Norfolk District Council. This contains what appears to be an accusation that I, or the clerk, fabricated a Code of Conduct after my complaint was made. Quote “It is quite clear that a Code of Conduct did not exist when the complaint was lodged”. In fact Catfield Parish Council formally adopted this Code of Conduct at the meeting held on 27th June 2012. Quote from the minutes a draft Code of Conduct has been received from NALC (Norfolk Association of Local Councils) and it is necessary for all Parish Councils to adopt this. The document has been circulated. MR Beckley proposed that the Code of Conduct be adopted as it stands and this was seconded by Mrs Wickens with all in agreement. That Tim had not seen the Code of Conduct is a separate issue but it had existed for over eight years when I made the complaint. I will write to NNDC pointing out this and refuting any implied misconduct in creating a Code of Conduct after making the complaint. Tim’s solicitors then asked “who drafted the Code of Conduct that has been post Code of Conduct complaint been posted on the Catfield website and who was consulted about it?”. It was drafted by NALC and all Parish Councillors in 2012 were consulted and agreed to it. He then asked who decided for it to be published on the website. The North Norfolk Monitoring Officer asked Sarah on 14th January for a copy as it was not on the website and she recommended that Sarah put it on the Website. In the NNDC Decision Notice of 15th February the Monitoring Officer recommends “the Code of Conduct for Catfield Parish Council is published on the website (now completed)”. So the clerk published the Code of Conduct on the website following the advice from NNDC Monitoring Officer, my biggest concern here is the implication in that sentence “it is quite clear that a Code of Conduct did not exist when the complaint was lodged”. Mr Harris thanked the Chairman for clarifying that but he talked to quite a number of Councillors none of them had the slightest awareness of this, he has also seen the joining pack that Councillors have been sent, there is no reference to any of that. At least half Councillors had never heard of it or signed anything so in those terms it did not exist and also it should be renewed there is a requirement that it is updated and renewed regularly which it has not been. 528 Dr Bacon stated that he believed it is almost word for word what still exists as NALC’s recommended Code of Conduct. He agreed that there has been a lapse in that it has not been distributed to new Councillors and what we learn from this is that the Parish Council and perhaps lots of other Parish Councils need to make sure that all their Councillors have a copy and sign to say they have received a copy. This apparently is quite common amongst many Parish Councils that this is not the case. Dr Bacon started that his big concern, and the reason he is speaking about this is the implication that a Code of Conduct was fabricated after the event, which he absolutely refutes, whether by himself or the Clerk.