The leader of Reading Borough Council (RBC) has refuted claims of a culture of bullying at the authority, saying there have been no complaints.
Momentum Reading, a local version of the national grassroots movement set up to support Jeremy Corbyn, posted on Twitter, claiming unions had highlighted a culture of bullying at RBC, with councillors “shouting at and belittling” council staff.
They said there is a “noted pattern in Reading Labour of targeting people going through difficult life circumstances for increased scrutiny, additional pressure and even spurious complaints to try and force them to give up when they are at their most vulnerable”.
But Councillor Jason Brock, leader of RBC, said: ‘The council has a clear and robust member-officer protocol governing the standards of behaviour expected in the workplace.
“This is in addition to the Councillor Code of Conduct and the various policies and commitments in place for the protection of staff.
“We have a strong working relationship with our four recognised trade unions and no complaints, formal or informal, have been brought to myself as leader, to the monitoring officer, or to any other relevant person.
“The council would always thoroughly investigate any complaint about councillor behaviour through the established processes, which also protect the independence of both the monitoring officer and the chair of the Standards committee.”
In June 2019, RBC chief executive Peter Sloman raised concerns about bullying at the council after a staff survey found one in ten council workers say they have been bullied.
READ MORE: ‘Sick to my stomach’ – Council chief executive alarmed at bullying levels
The most recent complaint made about a Reading councillor was September last year when Jason Collie – a local resident and Evening Standard journalist – accused Cllr Tony Page of bullying.
READ MORE: Official complaint after councillor Tony Page calls campaigner “coward”
During an Audit & Governance committee meeting, councillor Tony Page, deputy leader of RBC, told a campaigner he should stand for election if he wants to meet with head of resources Jackie Yates.
The campaigner, who had requested to meet with Ms Yates to ask question about the council’s accounts failures, responded: “P*ss off” to which Mr Page said: “You haven’t got the guts to. Coward.”
Mr Collie, who was attending the meeting to hear about the council’s failure to answer Freedom of Information (FOI) requests on time, sent a formal complaint to the council about Cllr Page’s comments.
But Cllr Page stood by his comment and said: “If Mr Lee wants to spend time with us, get elected. He has never stood for election.”
No decision has yet been formally announced, and the complaints process is believed to have been delayed due to a change in monitoring officer and the Covid pandemic.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has sent an FOI about this and is awaiting a response, which the council should have sent by November 18.
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