COMPLAINTS against councillors and against council staff by their own colleagues will be discussed on Monday night.

Swindon Borough Council’s standards committee will meet (June 29) for the first time since the coronavirus lockdown began.

On the agenda will be a new code of conduct, which the members will go into a private session to discuss. And the committee will hear a report on standards and ethics issues over the year.

There were five complaints made in Swindon against elected councillors – two about members of the borough council and three about parish councillors.

It is the council’s standards committee which deals with complaints against members of the lower authorities.

Five is a decrease from nine in 2018-19 and 36 the year before – although that year is an outlier, with no more than 15 complaints being made in any other of the last 10 years.

Whistleblowing by staff saw two council officers investigated and sacked after the cases were substantiated, with four other cases substantiated and two dismissed with four still under investigation.

The meeting begins at 5pm and the public can attend virtually via a web link.