Sir, – According to the last edition of Hambleton News, Hambleton and Richmondshire councils share a chief executive and senior management team and four departments are working as one. We are now told the councils are set to move even closer together (D&S, Sept 10).

Yet in one important area Hambleton council is pretending it is independent of Richmondshire.

A complaint against a town councillor for breaches of the councillors’ code of conduct has to be made not to the town council but to the district council.

I have such a complaint yet the Northallerton councillor concerned is also a senior member of Hambleton council.

Under such circumstances it used to be possible to complain direct to the Standards Board for England but under procedures introduced nationally last year this is no longer an option.

The new procedures include the appointment of three “independent”

members of Hambleton council’s standards committee.

These members are appointed by the council, work with the council’s staff and associate closely with other committee members. They are not independent as defined in my dictionary.

Because I had no alternative I complained to the district council but made it clear it was under protest about the want of independence. I urged the committee to refer the matter outside the council. This they appeared to do for they “decided to refer the allegation to the monitoring officer from another authority or other independent person for investigation”.

A truly independent investigation seems to have been envisaged but the investigating officer chosen proved to be the monitoring officer for Richmondshire council. Not only are the two councils working ever closer but the investigating officer has a Hambleton council email address and is listed on Hambleton’s website as a senior officer of that council. So much for independence.

I objected formally to the choice of investigating officer. I requested that my objections be shown to the “independent”

chairman of the sub-committee, a man I thought was there to protect my interests. This was repeatedly denied. Then after some pressure I was eventually told the question had been discussed with him and he agreed with the choice.

What is in effect an internal, and therefore farcical, investigation proceeds. For want of independence justice is not being seen to be done.

To make matters worse the standards board no longer monitors local-government complaints – it has been abolished by the Coalition Government.

D F SEVERS Trinity Gardens, Northallerton.