Call to treat North Yorkshire's parish councillors ‘more charitably’

Council leader Carl Les said: "People should go more often to their parish councils to see the work they are doing"

A council leader has called for people to be more "charitable" towards parish councillors following high numbers of complaints against them.

Nearly 150 complaints were made against North Yorkshire's parish councillors over an 11 month period.

However, most were dismissed for being "without merit."

Carl Les, the leader of North Yorkshire Council, said he feared a culture of complaining could deter people from serving their communities.

Mr Les was speaking after it emerged the authority had received 147 formal complaints since last April about councillors serving on the county's hundreds of parish and town councils.

Of those 24 related to elected North Yorkshire Council members, with 123 made against unpaid parish and town councillors.

A report to North Yorkshire Council's standards committee stated 100 cases did not merit any further action, with five cases recommended for informal resolution and 17 cases to be investigated.

'Building blocks of communities'

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the most common theme of the complaints was a lack of respect being shown towards residents, followed by claims of discrimination, bullying and councillors seeking to gain an advantage through their position.

Mr Les said he feared the volume of complaints being made "without merit" might make potential councillors think twice about coming forward.

"It clearly could have that effect as nobody likes to be criticised, especially when they are trying to do the best for their communities," he said.

He also described parish councillors as the "building blocks" of communities, adding: "People need to be more charitable towards men and women who put themselves forward to serve local areas".

"Parish councillors do it for nothing other than the satisfaction of serving the communities they live in."