A giant sinkhole in Surrey dominated the headlines of late. But it is the furore over misconduct allegations at one of the county's councils that truly encapsulates local problems in upholding standards and delivering services.
Last October, following an internal investigation, a council panel appeared to uphold a complaint that the leader of Spelthorne Borough Council, Joanne Sexton (a member of the Independent Spelthorne Group), had breached the authority’s code of conduct in an interaction with a colleague on 29th February 2024. The incident in question occurred after a meeting of the council’s Environment and Sustainability Committee.
The panel did not uphold the allegations of bullying made against Sexton, but she was asked to issue a private apology to the complainant over her behaviour. In a public statement in November, Sexton said she was “saddened” that an employee “has interpreted my enthusiasm as a lack of respect”.
The Covert Councillor has gained exclusive access to the report of the internal investigation into Sexton’s alleged behaviour, via a Freedom of Information request. The 31-page document—dated 22nd August 2024 and as yet unpublished—details what the complainant alleged and what Sexton said in response to the allegations.
The report is redacted, so it is hard to make out the substance of the disagreement. But we do know that, a few minutes after the end of that 29th February meeting, Sexton approached the complainant with something to discuss—and then things got somewhat heated. According to the investigation, Sexton was accused of using “threatening language”, “gesticulating”, “pointing”, and invading the complainant’s personal space. The report also says that the complainant “quietly apologised” in the face of the alleged aggression.
The investigation's author, Peter Bryant, was a long-time senior official in neighbouring Woking Borough Council until his retirement in 2021. Since then, Bryant has found gainful employment in adjudicating on council spats. Given the nature of the incident at Spelthorne—a heated interaction between colleagues, yielding conflicting accounts—Bryant’s report does not provide the clearest picture of what happened. It does, however, go into some detail about the altercation, taking three charges against Sexton in turn: that she shouted; that she invaded the complainant’s personal space; and that she waved a press release in their face.
Regarding the first, one witness described Sexton’s voice as “two and a half times louder” than normal and that her tone also reportedly changed during the altercation. This was contested by Sexton and others and after some semantic contortions, Bryant concludes that Sexton’s voice did indeed become loud but that she “did not shout”.
On the second and third allegations, Bryant finds that Sexton “became animated and gesticulated, wagging her hands” or a finger at the complainant and that the complainant’s personal space was invaded during the interaction.
In a summary of his interview with Sexton, as part of his investigation, Bryant says that Sexton “entirely refutes” the allegations made against her and said that the complaint was just “emotionally defensive and disgruntled”.
Since the council’s decision on the matter, there has been yet another extraordinary turn of events. When The Covert Councillor approached Sexton for her response to the allegations and the outcome of the investigation, she signposted your correspondent to a 12th February meeting of the council’s Standards Committee, adding that the matter is “subject to investigation and further details to follow”.
In a video of that discussion, which is publicly available on the council’s website, Tony Burrell, a Labour councillor, is heard telling the Standards Committee that he had “sleepless nights” after the meeting convened last year to look into the complaint against Sexton. In his view, he says, Sexton is “totally innocent”. Burrell also claims that there was pressure to find Sexton wanting or else council officers might lose their jobs. He charaterised the episode as the result of “political nonsense” and added: “I deeply regret what I allowed to happen that day, and I still do.”
A reminder for readers feeling lost in the internecine fighting at Spelthorne, that the council panel Burrell was referring to, which met on 17th October, found Sexton had breached the council’s code of conduct.
In the video, another councillor tells the committee that due process wasn’t followed and that she felt “pressured into making a decision that night”, without recourse to further discussion. These are serious allegations. But other councillors seen in the video of the 12th February meeting did not share Councillor Burrell’s recollection of events.
A war of words has clearly broken out in this Surrey council. Not only does the story highlight how difficult it can be to get to the truth about subjective and varying views of misconduct allegations, it also raises questions about freedom of expression. Bryant acknowledged that there are “discrepancies between the accounts” of the accuser and accused, but his report and the ensuing deliberations in the council and its various panels and committees are clear as mud. There would appear to be room for improvement in council interactions.
According to a statement cited in the internal investigation, the complainant was in a “state of shock” after the encounter. Sexton, who had attended mandatory code of conduct training in 2021 and 2023, as all councillors are expected to, is also described as someone who “didn’t like receiving news that she didn’t want to hear”.
But, echoing the comments of Burrell in the 12th February meeting, yet another councillor who was in the room at the time of the incident tells The Covert Councillor that they were “mystified” by the problems that Sexton’s behaviour has caused and that—in their view—the accusations are “politically motivated” and blown out of proportion. It seems curious, too, that the chair of the Environment and Sustainability Committee was not interviewed as part of the investigation. As a result, one councillor has called for “an investigation into the investigation”.
The Covert Councillor has seen similar disputes up close, and this looks like a stereotypical case of tit-for-tat action consuming far too much of our beleaguered public resources. There are plenty of local authorities where council officers see councillors as an annoyance to be tolerated rather than as elected politicians deserving of respect. Such clashes are a product of this toxic division and are endemic to local government in this country. Services suffer as a result of poor governance, with local authority officers all too willing to bypass councillors. Councillors, meanwhile, often seek any excuse to dismiss expert opinion as merely a blocker to getting things done.
If what happened between Sexton and the complainant last year remains unclear, at the very least it is clear that Sexton’s behaviour isn’t the only issue facing the authority. Spelthorne, which was under Conservative leadership until 2023, has a far longer history of poor management. Rishi Sunak’s government issued a “Best Value Inspection” following concerns about the debt that the local authority had accumulated. At over £1bn, it is 87.1 times higher than the authority’s “Core Spending Power”—a measure of funding available to a council. Officers and councillors are accountable.
The Best Value Inspection was expected to end in 2024 but was extended until the end of January 2025. The government has yet to confirm whether it is satisfied with Spelthorne or whether central government “envoys” could be dispatched to turn the authority around, as has happened in other crisis-ridden councils such as Tower Hamlets.
Incidentally, neighbouring council Woking declared bankruptcy in 2023. Auditors Grant Thornton produced a “public interest report” suggesting that council borrowing and management systems were inadequate, with decisions made on incomplete information. This was to some extent attributed to a small inner group, including Bryant, the author of Spelthorne's internal investigation, when he was monitoring officer there, alongside other senior officers of the council, which enabled borrowing and investment decisions to be made “on incomplete information”. In the long term this put the authority in financial distress. Woking is now £1.2bn in debt.
Under a possible devolution deal, Surrey’s authorities have now been allowed to postpone their local elections, meaning Spelthorne’s councillors can’t be voted out for an extra 12 months. However, as part of the deal Spelthorne may not exist at all by May 2026 as the government is requiring Surrey councils to merge in order to get new powers.
Meanwhile, Sexton's allies tell The Covert Councillor she believes she has been the victim of a witch-hunt and that she will be exonerated. Given this month’s fiery Standard’s Committee meeting, Bryant’s investigation is unlikely to be the end of it. In fact, in that 12th February meeting, Spelthorne’s monitoring officer called for a new investigation.
And it could go even further: in 2021, a parish councillor took Buckinghamshire Council to the High Court and won after the authority’s legal supremo concluded that he had breached its Code of Conduct. The High Court quashed the ruling after Mrs Justice Lang took the view that the councillor had been exercising their freedom of expression.
A long line of scandals and bankruptcies has rocked local government in recent years. The government is now consulting on new standards to address these endemic challenges. Understandably, free speech isn’t at the top of the local government in-tray, but will the government’s new plans to improve standards get bogged down in legal disputes? Who knows where Spelthorne’s war of words could end but, whatever happens, the taxpayer will be footing the bill.
