The number of open complaints about the conduct of South Tyneside’s councillors has decreased following the implementation of new timescales to help provide responses more promptly.

As part of a report to the latest meeting of South Tyneside Council’s standards committee it was revealed 18 new complaints have been received since March under the elected members’ code of conduct.

However during this period 33 complaints have been concluded and closed, leaving 25 open complaints, with the “majority of those being formally investigated.”

This is 14 fewer open complaints than in March when the committee last met.

The overall number of complaints since recording started in January 2020 is 298.

Of the 273 cases which have been closed since then, a total of 188 were rejected by the monitoring officer, for reasons such as insufficient evidence, 24 were resolved informally and 54 were withdrawn by the complainant.

This left seven which were closed following a hearing held by the local authority’s standards committee.

The meeting heard informal resolutions should be considered “at each stage of the complaints process” and councillors should be aware of the officer “time it takes to progress and respond to these complaints.”

Council legal and governance chiefs highlighted a new timescale was recently introduced which requires action to be taken with respect to a complaint within 21 working days of it being received.

The measures introduced also mean complaints will be rejected if evidence and additional information has been requested from the complainant and it isn’t provided within 21 days.

Officers added since the last meeting in March there have been no new complaints which have not been resolved, rejected or agreed for formal investigation within the 21 day period.

They added older complaints are “progressing” and there are “more of those coming towards hopefully a conclusion in the not too distant future.”

Independent chair Professor Grahame Wright, speaking at the meeting, noted although South Tyneside has overall seen a “large number” of complaints in comparison to other local authorities since 2020, work is taking place to tackle the issue.

He said: “We are getting to grips with this and I think that 21 day rule has been quite instrumental in this.

“There is still a massive amount of senior officers’ time going towards dealing with a number of these legacy cases which are complicated in all sorts of ways.

“If it wasn’t for those legacy cases it seems to me that the pattern of complaints is becoming much more tolerable and the response to those I think is becoming much more effective.”

He also reiterated calls for councillors to seek informal resolutions where possible and to encourage colleagues to not progress with “the sort of complaints that are getting rejected.”

The report from officers noted “external solicitors” have been appointed to carry out independent investigations against a number of complaints that have been referred for formal investigation.

Council chiefs added it is hoped draft reports will be provided shortly on these matters.

The report also noted where external investigators have been or are being used and appointed to conduct and report on formal investigations, the “costs of such appointments are in the region of £20,000 per investigation.”

Recorded council data on complaints is anonymised unless the complaint is escalated to this formal hearing stage, where an investigating officer’s report outlines the context of the complaint, findings and recommended sanctions.