{"id":247139,"date":"2025-02-26T10:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T10:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/26\/councillors-in-teignbridge-told-to-stop-swearing-and-show-respect\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T10:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T10:53:10","slug":"councillors-in-teignbridge-told-to-stop-swearing-and-show-respect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/26\/councillors-in-teignbridge-told-to-stop-swearing-and-show-respect\/","title":{"rendered":"Councillors in Teignbridge told to stop swearing and show respect"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Councillors<\/div>


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Miles Davis<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC Devon political reporter<\/span><\/p>\n

Reporting from<\/svg>Newton Abbot<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

An investigation will now be carried out into behaviour at Teignbridge Distict Council<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A “zero-tolerance approach” to swearing will be adopted by a Devon council trying to manage the behaviour of councillors.<\/p>\n

An investigation will be carried out into the way councillors behave towards each other at Teignbridge District Council.<\/p>\n

Auditors Grant Thornton said Teignbridge was unlike other councils and the way councillors treated one another had affected “the council’s reputation and working culture”.<\/p>\n

Liberal Democrat councillors voted in favour of the action but opposition members said the Grant Thornton report was “one-sided” and a “smear against all councillors”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Barrie<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Barrie Morris and Beth Bowers from auditors Grant Thornton<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Beth Bowers from Grant Thornton told councillors two previous reports had raised concerns about the behaviour of members and issues had persisted.<\/p>\n

She said: “The behaviour we have witnessed is totally unacceptable.”<\/p>\n

When asked for examples of bad behaviour, Ms Bowers said: “Shouting, swearing, muting microphones and leaving meetings.”<\/p>\n

She said interactions between councillors were “unlike those we have seen elsewhere in our extensive experience”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Richard<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Richard Keeling is the Liberal Democrat leader of Teignbridge District Council<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Richard Keeling, Liberal Democrat leader of the council, said: “The public don’t want to see councillors arguing in the council chamber – they want to see us getting on with the job.<\/p>\n

“Shouting obscenities is not what we are here for.”<\/p>\n

Philip Bullivant, the Conservative group leader, said the report by Grant Thornton was “an indictment on this council”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Toxic’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Independent member Richard Daws said Teignbridge was “unlike any other council” and said he had “never experienced anything as toxic”.<\/p>\n

He said: “Without naming names it’s an overarching smear against all councillors.”<\/p>\n

Independent member Jane Taylor referred to a heated meeting which took place in July in which leisure centre changing facilities were discussed.<\/p>\n

Taylor said: “I’ve been harassed and bullied because of my gender-critical views.”<\/p>\n

She said issues of councillor behaviour were “not complex” and added: “We don’t need an independent investigator to come in here and waste public money.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Jane<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Jane Taylor is an Independent member for Teignbridge District Council<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The BBC spoke to Jackie Weaver, the parish council clerk from Cheshire who shot to fame during lockdown<\/a> when she appeared in a meeting that spiralled into chaos.<\/p>\n

Speaking about councillor behaviour generally she said: “It is something I feel has got worse and I think it’s something we must do something about.<\/p>\n

“Often the behaviour itself is frankly petty but that low-level stuff has a really detrimental effect – not only on the council but also on the community.”<\/p>\n

The government launched a consultation in December<\/a> into standards of behaviour among councillors and could introduce the power to suspend councillors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Jackie<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Jackie Weaver shot to fame for her efforts to manage a council Zoom meeting during lockdown<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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In Teignbridge there will also be a review of the membership of the council’s standards committee, with only members who have “an excellent behavioural track record” being eligible to join.<\/p>\n

An investigation will now be commissioned and Grant Thornton will review the situation in six to 12 months’ time.<\/p>\n

The auditors said if there was no improvement then “further action will be taken”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miles Davis BBC Devon political reporter Reporting fromNewton Abbot BBC An investigation will now be carried out into behaviour at Teignbridge Distict Council A “zero-tolerance approach” to swearing will be adopted by a Devon council trying to manage the behaviour of councillors. An investigation will be carried out into the way councillors behave towards each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[21080,3009,443,759,7388,191666,2743],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247141,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247139\/revisions\/247141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}