Nine official complaints against Doncaster councillors

The complaints were received between April 1 2016 and March 31 this year - and investigations in each case concluded that no breach of the councillors official code of conduct had been committed.

Four of the complaints were over allegations that councillors had failed to declare an interest in matters that were before the council.

They were regarding matters including parking near to a primary school, interests as officials on outside bodies, and being a close friend of someone whose business was being discussed. In one of the cases, involving a planning application, a councillor was given advice on declaring interests on the planning committee in the future.

One of the complaints was made by one of Doncaster's academies, claiming that frequent tweets complaining about bushes not being trimmed would bring the academy into disrepute.

Five councillors were subject of a complaint over over lack of engagement with a neighborhood watch group over objections to a local planning application.

One complaint alleged two councillors were prejudiced and not objective in their consideration of a planning application.

One member was accused of being intimidating and rude towards a member of the public in their dealings with her over the hire of a local venue, and another was accused of failing to report an incident of flytipping and an abondoned vehicle, which they claimed was a 'dereliction of duty.'

Council monitoring officer Scott Fawcus said most of the complaints were not within the scope of the councillors code of conduct.

He told the meeting of the council's audit committee he thought the number of complaints was relatively low..

He said there was no right of appeal, but people could also take complaints to the local government ombudsman.