BULLYING, bribery and bad social media use have all been included as complaints made against 41 councillors in Wiltshire during the last year. Of these 12 were made against Wiltshire Councillors whereas the rest were made against town and parish councillors in 2018.

Complaints are stretching teams who investigate complaints to the point that one complaint was sent to be looked into by an external company at a cost of up to £2000.

Of the 41, eight have been referred for investigation, 26 have been found no further action and the rest are still in the system.

The amount of Wiltshire Council’s complaints were found to be largely the same as other comparable councils, with the exception of Cornwall, which had 143 complaints, of which 110 were against parish councillors across the county.

Chair Cllr Paul Oatway said: “I am becoming really aware of the pressure that our investigation teams are under with the amount of work that is there and reduced numbers. We appreciate the work they do.”

During the Standards Committee held in County Hall in Trowbridge on Wednesday, councillors heard that Wiltshire Council has had at least 47 complaints about councillors each year since 2013.