Mendip District Council Thinks The Nolan Principles Are Optional!

Andrew Pope
Mendip South Candidate
for Somerset County Council

Leader of Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope, is also our Candidate for the Mendip South division on Somerset County Council at the 2021 Elections.

Andrew spoke at the 9th November 2020 Mendip District Council Full Council meeting, to remind them of their obligations under the Nolan Principles. All public servants are required to adhere to the Principles, which were originally stated 25 years ago.

Andrew also attacked Mendip District Council for not adhering to the Nolan Principles in relation to its property investment and the proposed development of social housing at Easthill, From. The chief legal officer wrote to Andrew this year to say that the Nolan Principles were not part of the code of conduct. An incorrect and outrageous assertion.

His speech can be heard on the recording on the Mendip District Council website here.

The speech is also transcribed below.

"Good Evening! I am Andrew Pope, Leader of Somerset Independents, Somerset’s newest and only dedicated and registered political party.

I speak tonight on the 7 Principles of Public Life, also known as the Nolan Principles, which councillors and officers in public life, should live, breath and practice. They are:

    selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership

Lord Jonathan Evans, Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, recently reflected on the 25th Anniversary of the Nolan Principles, by saying:

“It’s clear that some of these elements are more developed in some areas of public life than others.”

So how “developed” are the Nolan Principles at Mendip District Council, and do you know what the expected standards of behaviour are? I suggest to you that behaviour and culture are not developed, in light of the fact that both the Deputy Monitoring Officer and Monitoring Officer have told me in writing, and I quote in response to a Formal Complaint I submitted on a Mendip District Councillor.

They said: “With regard to the Nolan Principles, they are exactly that and underpin the code of conduct but are not part of the code.”

A bit of a surprise to me that was. That might explain perhaps that the investigation was not conducted properly because of this, and the Councillor escaped the sanctions that should have followed a proper investigation. Let’s be absolutely clear – the Nolan Principles ARE part of all councils’ codes of conduct. They relate to ALL public servants.

Allow me to give you an example of why the Nolan Principles are so important to the people of Somerset – indeed across England, as the law is the same, yet councils like yours think that it isn’t!

In 2013, I was a Councillor in Southampton City Council and the Leader of the Council had to resign because he breached the Nolan Principles after an investigation.

So, if you haven’t understood why I tell you that story and you still ask what has this got to do with you, then you have been misled by Mendip District Council and its poor quality of organisational culture and behaviour. It is a culture and behaviour which, as a result of investigations under the 2014 Regulations by members of Somerset Indepedents, has now resulted in an investigation by the External Auditor Ernst and Young into two of the Nolan Principles – openness and transparency, in relation to the Council’s policy of property investment.

And as we’ve heard this evening, just look at the Easthill development in Frome, the decision happening behind closed doors.

What makes Mendip District Council so special, councillors? What do you have to hide? A lot, it seems.

You need to make sure that those Nolan Principles are at the heart of everything you do.

And that needs to start now.

Thank you very much for listening."