Number of complaints made about Councillor Bower since he was elected.

The request was refused by Arun District Council.

Dear Arun District Council,
Could you please inform me how many times complaints have been made against Cllr Richard Bower (East Preston, conservative) since he was elected and also any actions thus taken by ADC.

Yours faithfully,
Giles Binyon

Infomanagement, Arun District Council

Dear Mr Binyon

 

Thank you for your Information Request received on 12 September 2019.

 

REQUEST:

 

Could you please inform me how many times complaints have been made
against Cllr Richard Bower (East Preston, conservative) since he was
elected and also any actions thus taken by ADC.

 

RESPONSE:

 

As background, Councillor Bower was elected to Arun District Council on 4
May 1995 and has held office since then.  His current term of office will
expire in May 2023.  Councillor Bower was also previously elected to the
Council on 5 May 1983 and held office until 2 May 1991.

 

The Council does not hold records of complaints since Councillor Bower was
first elected.  The first records held are from November 2012 following
the Council adopting a local Code of Conduct and local procedures for
investigating complaints in line with the requirements of the Localism Act
2011.  Prior to this a national framework was in place. 

 

The Council’s adopted Local Assessment Procedure confirms how complaints
will be dealt with and how any decisions made will be published.  This
information is available from the Council’s website at
[1]https://www.arun.gov.uk/complaints-again...

 

Turning to your request, the information you are seeking is accessible to
you from the Council’s website through reports made to the Standards
Committee on the outcome of local assessments at
[2]https://democracy.arun.gov.uk/mgCommitte...

 

9 complaints have been made about Councillor Bower which have been the
subject of a local assessment.  The Standards Committee agenda of 25 July
2019 (item 7), provides the decision notices of the Assessment Panel. 
These decision notices were published to the Council’s website for the
period of 3 months agreed by the Panel immediately after the decision
notices were issued on 15 March 2019.  Once the period of publication has
passed, the decision notices are removed from the Council’s website.

 

The Standards Committee retains a Register of Complaints that it considers
at each of its meeting.  The Local Assessment Procedure confirms that any
complaints that are rejected or are not the subject of a review by the
Assessment Panel are reported to the next Standards Committee when it
considers the Register of Complaints.    The Register is considered under
exempt business defined by paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local
Government Act 1972, as amended, as information relating to any
individual.

 

The Council is applying the exemption at section 40(2) of the FOIA in
withholding the information contained in the Register of Complaints.  This
is on the basis that this information is exempt from disclosure as it
constitutes the personal data of a third party and its disclosure would
breach the principles of processing at Article 5(1)(a) of the GDPR that
“personal data shall be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent
manner in relation to the data subject”.    The third party information is
that of the complainant and the individual councillor complained about.
   In the Council’s view, this constitutes the personal data of an
individual other than yourself.  In balancing whether to disclose the
information, the Council has considered that this Register includes
details of complaints that did not face local assessment and were either
rejected or subject to resolution between both parties.  It is the
Council’s view that there is an expectation that this information will
remain confidential between the parties.  The Council’s decision is that
it would not be fair to disclose this to the world at large and is
therefore withholding the information from you.

 

 

 

If you are dissatisfied with the way your request for information has been
handled, you can write asking for a review of the Council’s response,
within the next two months, to the Information Management Team at: Arun
District Council, Arun Civic Centre, Maltravers Road, Littlehampton, West
Sussex, BN17 5LF (email [3][Arun District Council request email]).

 

If, having exhausted our review procedure, you remain dissatisfied with
the handling of your request or complaint, you will have a right to appeal
to the Information Commissioner at: The Information Commissioner's Office,
Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF (telephone: 0303
123 1113; website [4]www.ico.org.uk).  There is no charge for making an
appeal.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

Information Management Team

Arun District Council

 

 

 

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References

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1. https://www.arun.gov.uk/complaints-again...
2. https://democracy.arun.gov.uk/mgCommitte...
3. mailto:[Arun District Council request email]
4. http://www.ico.org.uk/
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