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Aug 2020

Last Updated: 26/08/2020

Harrogate

How Harrogate Borough Council responded to a complaint around Cllr Mearns and Gmund Cars

by Calvin Robinson

| 27 Aug, 2020

When Anthony Place complained about Cllr Samantha Mearns over Gmund Cars Ltd, Harrogate Borough Council had to decide what action to take. This is how the authority responded.

Harrogate Borough Council and Cllr Samantha Mearns.

When Anthony Place put his complaint into Harrogate Borough Council, it went to the authority’s monitoring officer, Jennifer Norton, who assessed whether it was something the council would investigate further.

For councils across the country, including Harrogate Borough Council, the monitoring officer is bound by the code of conduct when it comes to dealing with complaints and its ability to take action against councillors.

What happened in the case of Cllr Samantha Mearns?

In the case of Cllr Samantha Mearns and the complaint from Anthony Place in June 2019, the borough council felt the councillor was “not engaged in council business” so the rules of the code of conduct did not apply.

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Later that month, the council responded to the complaint regarding Cllr Mearns and said:

“On this occasion, your complaint is in the context of the alleged misappropriation of customers goods/money by a company in which Samantha Mearns and her husband were directly involved.

“Samantha Mearns was not engaged on council business when carrying out any activities associated with the company.

“For this reason, it would not be appropriate for me to refer the matter for investigation under the council’s code of conduct.”

The council then did not take any further action to investigate the complaint.

It was a similar situation with the case of Ernest Butler

More recently, the Stray Ferret reported on parish Cllr Ernest Butler after racial comments he made on social media regarding a white lives matter protest.

A complaint was made to the borough council about his post, but again said it could not take action. The authority again said the councillor should be engaged in business directly related to the council or constituents for it to breach its code.

However, these cases do not necessarily always leave the complainant feeling satisfied.

In the case of Mr Place, he told the Stray Ferret:

“For the life of me, I cannot see how someone conducts themselves in their private life isn’t relevant to how they conduct themselves in public office.”