Watchdog has teeth

ROGER McMeeking has one of those craggy, patrician faces that somehow inspire trust. With his distinguished silver hair and intelligent, educated features the retired Bursar of York University could almost be a rather kindly-looking judge.

Which is appropriate. Because as chairman of City of York's council's standards committee, he is the man whose job it is to make sure York's elected councillors behave themselves.

Standards committees are being set up at councils across the country in the wake of scandals such as Donnygate.

Their remit: to promote openness, transparency and high standards of conduct in local government, and to investigate and adjudicate complaints about the behaviour of elected parish, district, county or city councillors.

Top of the agenda will be to ensure elected councillors are scrupulous about things such as registering and declaring interests. Councillors' behaviour will also be under scrutiny, to ensure they don't bring their authority into 'disrepute' and don't use their position as an elected member for personal gain.

It is all a vital part in restoring public confidence in local Government, says Mr McMeeking.

The Nolan Committee on Standards In Public Life had exposed corruption, dishonesty and inappropriate behaviour at a number of councils, Doncaster among them, and faith in local democracy had been shaken.

There is a "pervasive sense of cynicism" among much of the electorate about local politicians, he says - the feeling that "they are all in it for their own ends".

A big part of his job, therefore, is to restore trust by demonstrating that local government is whiter than white.

First things first, then. Presumably, as the man in charge of policing local councillors' behaviour, he is a man of unimpeachable moral standards himself?

His face crinkles into the hint of a smile. "That's not for me to claim." Certainly, he says, he has no record of being arrested. "Though I was locked up once, here in York."

Oh, yes? It was in the late 1960s, he says, during the Vietnam War. An arsonist had taken it into his head to start burning down the homes of York people who had signed a letter in the press criticising the United States - among them leading figures at York University. Mr McMeeking, who was then an administration officer at the university, noticed a pattern in the arson attacks.

The first home to be attacked belonged to a man whose surname began with a W. Next was a man whose name began with an A. Then the arsonist switched back to the end of the alphabet for his next victim. Mr McMeeking realised he was working his way through the list of people who had put their names to the letter, but bobbing about from the beginning to the end of the alphabet to confuse things.

"So I went to see the police, and said 'I think I can help you'," he says. "And they locked me up for one and a half hours!" He smiles ruefully. "Serves me right for being public spirited!"

Fortunately, it didn't deter him from wanting to do his bit. He is one of those public school-educated Oxbridge men (BA from Magdalen College, Oxford) who believes in giving something back, and who has become a pillar of the local establishment. Since he retired from York University five years ago he has been an unpaid director or trustee of a number of organisations such as the York Archaeological Trust, York Early Music Foundation, the York Millennium Bridge Trust and Yorkshire Film Archive.

So when he saw an advertisement for the unpaid post of chairman of the council's standards committee, he didn't hesitate to apply. "I figure that York has been very kind to me and I was keen to do something in return," he says.

He was interviewed by the council's appointing committee, and appointed chairman of the standards committee when it was first set up two years ago.

He is not a councillor, he stresses - important if the committee is to be seen to be independent - and does not have any political affiliations.

The new committee's powers are still being finalised. At the moment, it's powers of investigation are limited - anything that involves a breach of the elected members' code of conduct (see panel) has to be referred to the national Standards Board for investigation.

But already local committees such as York's are, Mr McMeeking stresses, watchdogs with very sharp teeth. They have power to censure councillors, withdraw their privileges for up to three months - and even, in the last resort, suspend them.

So how does it work? Anybody can make a complaint to the committee about the behaviour of an elected parish or city councillor through the council's head of legal services.

If it involves a breach of the members' code of conduct, it will then be referred to the national Standards Board.

Complaints that are not so serious - for example, a member of the public who claims they were shouted down and denied a chance to speak at a council meeting by a committee chairman - will be handled locally.

The council's legal team will investigate, and a hearing will be held in public in front of three members of the standards committee to decide whether a complaint should be upheld and, if so, what the penalty should be.

Some less serious cases involving breach of the members' code of conduct may, after they have been investigated by the national Standards Board, also be referred back to the local committees for final adjudication, with a recommended course of action.

It is a welcome move towards better regulation of local councillors behaviour: but Mr McMeeking is determined not to become bogged down in trivia. He says he will not tolerate attempts by councillors to use the standards committee to score points against political opponents.

"National case law says that councillors may call another member 'a liar', 'gutless', 'spineless' or 'a joke'," he says. Although not, apparently, a plonker.

So far, there have been no hearings of the Standards Committee in York, and in the two years he has been chairman, Mr McMeeking says, there has generally been a very high standard of conduct.

But what about those two high profile cases involving York councillors recently - parish councillor Christine Cranfield, who resigned after it emerged she ran a hard-core porn website, and city councillor Mark Hill, who was arrested for obstruction during protests at North Yorkshire spy base Menwith Hill? Would they have been suitable candidates for investigation?

Mr McMeeking chooses his words carefully. There was no complaint about Christine Cranfield, he points out, and she resigned herself. "It really is premature to say anything about a case that is not a case. But she is an individual who has done nothing wrong." And Green councillor Mr Hill? Following his arrest, former York councillor Nick Blitz asked in an article in the Evening Press whether he would be referred to either the standards committee or the national standards board. Mr McMeeking gives short shrift to the idea.

Many councillors, and indeed MPs, have at one time or another been arrested for a variety of reasons, often when young, he says. But arrest is not the same as being charged or convicted. "The fact of arrest does not necessarily constitute an impairment of their ability to be councillors." There has been no complaint made against Coun Hill, he says. And anyway, councillors have human rights and civil liberties the same as anyone else: and they have to be upheld, just like anyone else's.

Which seems a very fair and measured response.

Code of conduct:

Elected members must:

Promote equality

Treat others with respect

Not disclose confidential information

Not use position to advantage or disadvantage

Not prevent access to legitimate information

Register financial and other interests within 28 days

Notify gifts or hospitality received

Updated: 11:17 Friday, April 16, 2004