LevellerLive

There’s never a dull moment at Martock Town Council. Last month’s Leveller revealed how the council had struggled through a period of constant resignations and changing personnel.

There was also an official complaint to the Association of Local Council Clerks.

The basics behind the complaint, were that a locum clerk hired by Martock Parish Council had acted both for a former clerk and for the parish council in an employment dispute. So effectively acting for both sides.

We should stress, as we did in our article in the March Leveller, that the clerk strenuously denied the allegations in the complaint. However it now looks as if the complaint will not even be investigated. The Association of Local Council Clerks have stated that a complaint against one of their members will only be investigated if the complaint is made by another of their members.

Which leaves someone wanting to complain about a clerk’s behaviour with limited avenues for redress. Presumably having to pursue a case through the courts.

Up until our last report in the April Leveller, 5 sitting councillors had resigned from the council. Since then another councillor has thrown in the towel. Les Hallet who had been a councillor on Martock Parish Council for 3 years resigned having sent a strongly worded resignation letter. In that letter Mr Hallett repeated the allegation that the former locum clerk had represented both sides in the employment dispute.

It seems the issue is not going away any time soon.

Meanwhile the Parish Council’s new website is almost invisible. When we tried, Google couldn’t find it and the old MartockOnline website doesn’t provide a link. If you want to find it quickly it is here https://martock-pc.gov.uk

However it won’t help much. Although the January meeting and minutes are faithfully filed, there are neither agendas nor minutes for the February meeting. And as to the March meeting due to have happened on 22 March, it was cancelled, according to the website, “due to unforeseen circumstances”