CUMBERLAND Council received a total of 61 formal complaints during a one-year period, it has been revealed.

As well as complaints made against the unitary authority, this figure also includes those made against town and parish councils across north Cumbria – and in addition to the eight made against Cumberland Council there were two made against Westmorland & Furness Council, which were forwarded to that authority.

They were received between April 1 last year and March 31 this year. Clare Liddle, the council's monitoring officer, presented her report to members of the council's standards and governance committee at Friday's (May 24) meeting in the Civic Centre in Carlisle.

According to her report, a total of 19 of the complaints were not taken further because they were either corporate complaints – against an officer or service area – addressed to the wrong council, 'vexatious' or anonymous.

The eight which were made specifically against Cumberland Council included abuse of position; bringing the authority into disrepute; and showing disrespect.

Of the eight, six were closed at the first stage, in one no breach was found, while the other is still under investigation.

In her report Ms Liddle said: "There has been one final decision notice upholding a complaint shown at Appendix 1.

"In respect of those where no breach was upheld, or ongoing complaints, it would not be appropriate to comment in detail in this report. However, members will receive reports on those complaints which are upheld once the decision has been communicated to the subject member.

"On a separate matter, there has been a self-referral to the monitoring officer who has conducted an investigation and found no breach. Notwithstanding the above, the private report is attached as Appendix 2 for members to note."

During the meeting she said: "At one point we were getting several a week, so it's been a busy year. [The report] gives you a flavour of what we are dealing with."

She gave one example of a complaint made against the chairman of a parish council which alleged they were disrespectful to members of the public at a meeting.

But when she spoke with the parish councillor, she said that they had claimed they had cracked a joke, which did not go down well with the public, and they agreed to make a public apology, so the matter was resolved.

Councillor Chris Southward (Denton Holme, Labour) asked about the anonymous complaints and Ms Liddle said: "We say you can't submit anonymous complaints.

"There were two anonymous complaints which were sent back."

Members of the committee noted the contents of her report and considered the two additional reports behind closed doors.