Councillors urged to be respectful
Elected members in Walsall have been advised not to cross the line in the language they use during heated exchanges in the council chamber.
Walsall Council’s head of legal and democratic services Tony Cox presented a case study to members of the standards committee at a meeting on Monday which set out pitfalls councillors face.
The case in 2009 involved a Flintshire County Council member being found guilty of 14 breaches of that authority’s code of conduct “by failing to show respect and consideration for officers, using bullying behaviour, attempting to compromise the impartiality of officers and conducting himself in a manner likely to bring his office or the council in disrepute”.
The councillor was disqualified from being a member of that council and any other authority for two and a half years.
Mr Cox told Walsall members that the hearing looked at levels of proof and took into consideration freedom of expression within the Human Rights Act.
But while all politicians have an “enhanced protection”, particularly in the council chamber arena, Mr Cox urged them to conduct themselves respectfully to ensure they did not fall foul of existing laws.
Members of the committee said the public expected them to conduct themselves as councillors 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Mr Cox said: “The case I refer do is quite topical in terms of freedom of expression.
“In this case, they looked at the issue as it affects politicians. There is an enhanced protection applied to all level of politics including local. Article 10 protected not only the substance of what was said but also the form in which it was conveyed.
“In a political context, the immoderate, offensive, exaggerated and aggressive may be tolerated where it would not otherwise be.
“The courts recognise that politics is an emotive and passionate business and sometimes in our chamber, language can get quite heated and that is the nature of politics.
“They also noted that politicians were subject to wider limits of acceptable criticisms – you’re in the public eye and are public figures.
“Politicians are expected to be more thick skinned and tolerant. It was also said there should be enhanced protection for those who comment on politics and politicians – most notably the press.
“Where politicians may indulge in debate that can get quite heated there is a bigger zone of tolerance rather than for example in this case where politicians use offensive language to an officer.
“As your monitoring officer, my advice would be to still act with courtesy to each other and try to avoid being insulting to each other.
“I have to say in general that the behaviour within the chamber as a whole tends to be within the bounds of acceptability.
“I thought it would be useful to set out this case and it is quite topical at the moment and while you have a wider zone of tolerance, that zone of tolerance only goes so far.
“I have always said local councillors have an incredibly difficult job and are often the first point of call when people are distressed.
“There is a very high level of expectation on politicians which is why I think we have to do our best as a local authority to uphold the best levels of conduct.”
