ALMOST 30 complaints were made against members of just one parish council, borough reports show.

The Advertiser understands the 29 complaints against 11 parish councillors followed a heated meeting of Wanborough Parish Council in January.

Members of the public crowded the meeting to protest against the removal of a footpath that runs from Sutors Lane to another on land at Honeyfield Farm from the definitive map of paths. The protestors claimed it had been used for 120 years, but the council claimed it had not been in use for more than 20.

Despite representations from borough councillor Gary Sumner and at least eight residents in favour of the footpath modification order that would have seen the path added to the map, parish councillors said the decision had already been made.

Now, the matter is understood to be with Swindon Borough Council’s rights of way team.

Previously, the protesters have expressed their desire to take the matter to the secretary of state.

At a meeting of the Swindon Borough Council’s standards committee on Monday evening, monitoring officer Stephen Taylor said a considerable proportion of the complaints related to just one meeting.

He told councillors: “Just before the year end we got a massive complaint from one parish council about each other and about a lot of the public as well.

“I wouldn’t say there was a riot exactly, but there was an active meeting, which led to a whole host of complaints, multiple complaints against multiple councillors. We had to deal with them all separately. They came up to the last assessment panel, which then made various decisions.”

Mr Taylor said the complaints did not relate to one of the newly-created parish councils.

Members of the new parish councils were “extraordinarily compliant and well behaved”, he told councillors. 35 councillors were due to attend a code of conduct training meeting in Chiseldon on Monday evening.

In total, 36 complaints were made against borough and parish councillors last year, up from just one the year before.

The Swindon Advertiser has approached Wanborough Parish Council for comment.