He’s not the first among ‘Your Waverley’ councillors to join the cash and clout brigade.
and here’s a response a resident received after he had made a complaint!
Dear Ms McQuillan,
A ‘Monitoring’ process which does not investigate information provided anonymously is not fit for purpose and must surely be in direct conflict with the council’s whistleblowing policy?
As I hope you can appreciate, I am not willing to have my identity disclosed to Mr Reynolds as this may prejudice any future planning applications I choose to make.
The Monitoring Officer can easily verify the facts I have reported:
(1) Councillor Reynolds made in a public forum (Facebook) touting for a building plot which was seen by thousands of local residents, including fellow councillors.
(2) Councillor Reynolds has not declared an interest in property development in the WBC register of interests.
The Monitoring Officer should recognise there is a potential breach of the Localism Act which they are duty bound to investigate now it has been brought to their attention.
Your sincerely,
‘A concerned Waverley resident’
On Wednesday, October 4, 2017, MonitoringOfficer <MonitoringOfficer@waverley.gov.uk> wrote:
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for your email. The Council takes complaints about the conduct of councillors very seriously and considers each one in accordance with its arrangements for dealing with complaints, which are available on our website. The arrangements set out the criteria against which all complaints are considered to assess whether they are valid complaints. Unfortunately, complaints which are submitted anonymously are not normally investigated.
I would be very grateful, therefore, if you could indicate whether you are willing to make your identity known, and if so, would you also be willing for the councillor concerned to be made aware of your identity? Without this, the Monitoring Officer may be unable to investigate the complaint in accordance with the Council’s process. If you have a particular reason why you wish to remain anonymous, the Monitoring Officer is willing to consider this.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards, Emma
Emma McQuillan Democratic Services Manager (Deputy Monitoring Officer)Policy and Governance www.waverley.gov.uk/committees Direct Line: 01483 523351
The monitoring officer, Robin Taylor, will not investigate something they will regard as trivial. (I don’t). If they refuse to investigate a complaint about named Councillors deceiving the public about a £353,000 fraud they are certainly not going to investigate this. Open and Transparent? only if it is about nothing of any importance.
I wondered why, under Mr Reynold’s leadership, Godalming Town Council decided to stop looking at planning applications…..
Tell us more? Looking at planning applications is a vital part of any town or parish councils function. Why on earth would it choose not to make its views known to help the decision makers. Or did Councillor Reynolds know that regardless of whatever views the town council expressed, ‘Tour Waverley’ planners would ignore them?
All of the above, and, a little birdie tells me, because after the 2015 election Town Councillors’ attendance plummeted. They abolished the Planning Committee to reduce the number of meetings they had to attend.
Ah! but if you are a parish councillor and you rattle the cages of the planning officers too often – then Little Hitler – Robin Taylor – will haul you in and give you a good drubbing!