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Somerset Independents puts residents first. We are continuing the campaign for all councillors to have to have criminal records checks (DBS). But "corrupt" South Somerset District Council did not perform these checks on all councillors. How do we know? Because we asked.
Richard Ward, the Head of Legal at SSDC and Monitoring Officer, told us when we asked him a series of questions in late 2020:
"1. Which policies of the Council include references to DBS checks for councillors, and whether these checks are Basic or Enhanced? –
I don’t believe it is in a policy. Not all district councils do checks mainly because we do not generally provide services directly to vulnerable groups. It may be something we wish to review though."We are of the view that if a councillor does their job of representing their constituents properly, they will come into contact will all sorts of people, young and old and including vulnerable people. Yet the Monitoring Officer who was responsible for standards, didn't "believe it is in a policy" to perform DBS checks, at the same time as the former Leader of the Council was on trial.
The former Liberal Democrat Leader of South Somerset District Council, Ric Pallister, "was found guilty of 18 counts of indecent assault, with the offences committed between the 1980s and 2000s." as reported by the Chard and Ilminster News. Pallister was sentenced to 11 years in prison on 24th September 2021, as reported by SomersetLive.
A year before, in November 2020, when we became aware of the charges against Pallister, our Safeguarding Spokesperson Denise Wyatt wrote to all SSDC councillors asking them about DBS checks and quoting the answers from Richard Ward.
We did not get many replies from councillors and from their responses, there was no action taken to make sure DBS checks were made for all councillors. And you have seen one response from the Monitoring Officer - his other responses are below.
Have SSDC changed their policy since on DBS checks? We are not aware that they have, although we have asked them. And next year, they will be abolished and cannot be voted out. It is a dangerous time.
This is a council that has been described by The Leveller as "The Corrupted". It is a council that even the current Liberal Democrat Leader Councillor Val Keitch has described publicly in a public meeting as "corrupt" when discussing the case of SSDC Director Clare Pestell, who was sacked after an investigation found her to have committed gross misconduct, although she denied the allegations. Councillor Keitch survived a vote of no confidence, but her Lib Dem councillors made unsubstantiated allegations in public against a former councillor, for which they were made to apologise.
And as reported on this website, when Somerset Independents investigated their councillors and whether they paid they council tax every month, South Somerset covered up their names until we went to the Information Commissioner to make them reveal the names. South Somerset is still fighting us and covering up information relating to the arrears of its councillors.
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| Liberal Democrat Leader Councillor Val Keitch |
South Somerset is a council in disarray. It is a council controlled by Somerset Liberal Democrats.
It is also a council that has gone on a spending spree with public money, and where the Audit Committee Chair is a Lib Dem (and a majority of Lib Dem councillors on the Committee) who is supposedly "checking" on a Lib Dem Leader and Cabinet, but where project after project is overspending - on Wincanton Regeneration, on Chard Regeneration, on the Octagon Theatre in Yeovil, and more. These debts will be taken on by the New Somerset Council in 2023, when SSDC is scrapped. The SSDC councillors will cease to be, but their legacy is disastrous.
So where are the investigations into SSDC councillors? That is the responsibility of the Standards Committee and the Monitoring Officer.
As we publicised a long time ago on our website (November 2021), and as you can see below in the other questions to the Monitoring Officer, the Standards Committee hardly ever met. This has been reported upon by The Leveller more recently in 2022.
So what was the attitude from the officer responsible for standards of councillors? As you look through Richard Ward's responses below, please consider:
Where is the reckoning for the Pallister years? Or is that being ignored?
Why weren't Standards of councillors maintained or even checked, shown by the failure of the Committee to hardly ever meet?
Why have SSDC refused to carry out DBS checks, when other district councils do carry them out (e.g. Sedgemoor)?
Lib Dem councillors including Councillor Keitch have been elected to the Somerset County Council which will inherit their own disastrous legacy from the districts, and she has been elevated to the Cabinet position of responsibility, as well as other SSDC councillors.
The New Somerset Council legacy will be a Lib Dem and Tory legacy from the disastrous way that the districts and county council have been run. It will inherit:
- bad debts
- bad councillors
- bad decisions
- bad officers
and sadly, it will be the people of Somerset who will pay for it.
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"Further to your enquiry re DBS checks
1. Which policies of the Council include references to DBS checks for councillors, and whether these checks are Basic or Enhanced? –
I don’t believe it is in a policy. Not all district councils do checks mainly because we do not generally provide services directly to vulnerable groups. It may be something we wish to review though.
2. Whether ALL councillors are subjected to DBS checks, whether Basic or Enhanced, and how often?
No, not to my knowledge.The District Council would not be able to undertake Enhanced checks in any event
3. If any councillor does not have a DBS check carried out, whether or not that is a breach of the Code of Conduct including the Nolan Principles? It is not a requirement and I can’t see the Nolan principles are relevant.
4. When any committee of the Council considered DBS checks for councillors, what decisions they took, which councillors were involved and what the officer recommendations were.
NA
5. Whether ALL current serving councillors have had DBS checks and confirmation of those checks and the level of checks. Your answer may include the current register for those checks.
No not to my knowledge.
6. The names of any councillors who have not had DBS checks, with reasons. Again, your answer may include the current register for those checks.
Some councillors do have DBS checks but not as councillors. Often they are governors and hold other roles.
7. The reasons for the cancellation of the Standards Committee meetings, and who made the decision to cancel each of these meetings. Please see attached screenshot.
This is usually the Chair in discussion with the Committee Administrator when there is no business to discuss.
8. The details of what happened when the Standards Committee considered the case of former Council Leader Ric Pallister and if it did not consider this case, why not?
It has never considered the case of Councillor Pallister. Councillor Pallister was charged after he stepped down from being a councillor. As of this date he has not been convicted of those charges and so under the law of this country someone is considered innocent until proven guilty.
9. Whether Mr Pallister went through any DBS checks and the details of whether he passed or failed?
I am not aware Mr Pallister had a DBS check undertaken in his role as a councillor although he may have had one in other capacities he held.
Regards
Richard Ward"
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