Agenda item

Report of the Deputy Chief Fire Officer (ADC/19/1) attached.

(An item taken in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 during which the press and public were excluded from the meeting).

The Committee considered a report of the Deputy Chief Fire Officer (ADC/19/1) on a complaint received about a statutory officer of the Authority.  The report:

·         set out the complaint together with supporting evidence submitted by the complainant; and

·         the outcome of preliminary background work into the context and substance of the complaint undertaken to assist the Committee in determining whether there was prima facie case for referring the complaint for independent investigation.

RESOLVED

(a).      that, having considering all the evidence before it, the view of the Committee that:

·         the complaint appeared to be based on assumption and uncorroborated hearsay; whereas

·         the evidence from the preliminary background work strongly supported that the events complained of had not, in actuality, happened;

be recorded; and

(b).      that, having applied the balance of probability to the complaint and other materials before it, the Committee determined that no prima facie case for referring the complaint for independent investigation had been established and that given this it would not be appropriate to expend the Authority’s resources on so referring the complaint.