Councillor swore at another planning committee member - can we get him to recuse himself?

[chocolatemonster1]

We are going through the planning process and our application has been sent to the planning committee. I'm not really sure what is going on with that committee, but it all got incredibly heated. Most of the committee in favour of our application - but decision deferred to next month. One of the three people who is against our plan swore twice at another councillor. Surely this is inappropriate? Surely there is some sort of code of conduct? Basically, we don't want him to be part of the decision making process, but obviously don't want to rile him any more if he's going to stay on the committee. (Our application is genuinely quite anodyne - converting a redundant building into a family home - we've got a huge amount of public support - over a hundred people writing in to support, no objections.)

I work in local government, you usually sense hostility between councillors, but I've never seen it boil over into swearing in front of members of the public.

I would absolutely make a complaint, I'd direct it to the Leader of the Council (political) and also to the chief exec.

Thank you! Yes - everyone looked shocked and then he said it again! And yes, I'd expect things to get a bit lively, but that was a bit much (she says, swearing like a trooper in the privacy of her own home).

Recusal is for when there is a conflict of interest. So I am not sure you can ask for that. You can certainly complain about unprofessional conduct though.

But do you need this councillor to agree to get approval? Filing a complaint about swearing is likely to evaporate any chance of them agreeing. So I’d think carefully about the repercussions of a complaint before filing one.

Your council's website should have details on how to make a code of conduct complaint against a councillor.