Councillor ‘excluded’ from council offices for ‘bullying’ staff asks for training

A councillor who was ‘excluded’ from council offices after ‘bullying’ claims until she has attended training , has asked for the training to be arranged.

Councillor Linda Derrick was found to have ‘bullied’ staff at Hughenden Parish Council on two separate occasions, Buckinghamshire Council ruled in March and December last year.

But more than a year on from the first ruling against her, the parish councillor claims she has still not been given training by Hughenden Parish Council as per its sanctions against her.

Cllr Derrick has called for her training to be arranged in an email to Bucks Council seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

She wrote: “On April 3, 2023, HPC excluded me from attending any premises of the parish council – except to attend formal meetings – until I had attended specified training to be arranged by the council.

“I was informed by the then clerk that the training would be arranged ‘as soon as reasonably practicable’.

“Unfortunately, none of this training has been arranged, despite my repeatedly requesting it over the past year.”

Hughenden Parish Council sits in the Chiltern hills near High Wycombe. The authority has been approached for comment.

In her letter to Bucks Council, Cllr Derrick claimed that her parish council remains ‘dysfunctional’ and is ‘wasting thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money’.

She says this includes the salary of Hughenden’s current locum clerk, who was appointed after other clerks quit their roles at the ‘chaotic’ parish authority.

Cllr Derrick claimed that Hughenden receives monthly invoices from the Local Government Resource Centre for the clerk’s part-time services and shelled out £9,000 for these in December alone.

Cllr Derrick – an experienced civil servant – says she has tried to organise the training but claims Hughenden Parish Council has not helped her.

In the meantime, she has refused to join the string of other councillors who have resigned from the parish council in recent years.

She said: “Several other experienced and competent female councillors, who have been treated like I have, have resigned.

“However, I am not going.  There is only a year to go to the next elections.  I can manage that.”

Cllr Derrick’s case was discussed by Buckinghamshire councillors this month during a meeting of the standards and general purposes committee as they debated an annual review of complaints against councillors.

Tony Green, the Bucks councillor for Terriers & Amersham Hill ward, which neighbours Hughenden, raised the fact that Cllr Derrick has been trying to organise training for a year.

Cllr Catherine Oliver also said: “The parish council itself doesn’t seem to be working.”