DENBIGHSHIRE’S standards committee will vote to remove the press and public from a public meeting before discussing complaints made against councillors later this week.
The committee is set to discuss a confidential report by the council’s monitoring officer, providing an overview of “complaints against members lodged with the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales”.
But Denbighshire has listed the item as restricted, meaning the committee will likely vote to remove both the press and public from the debate.
The reasons given for making the item confidential are that the information is “likely to reveal the identity of an individual” and that the “public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information”.
The meeting is set to take place on Friday at the council’s Ruthin County Hall HQ.
Also on the agenda is an “Our Findings” report from the Ombudsman.
The standards committee will be updated on councillor conduct cases published – although no recent complaints were upheld against Denbighshire members.
The report highlights the Ombudsman’s change from the old quarterly Code of Conduct Casebook format to a new online “Our Findings” section, which offers a searchable database of investigated complaints.
Covering the period between 28 February and 27 May 2025, nine Code of Conduct cases were published nationally.
Six related to respect and equality; two to disclosure and registration of interest; and one to upholding the law. Of those, four resulted in no action, three were discontinued, and two found no evidence of a breach.
But none of the cases involved Denbighshire councillors.
