County Hall under 'heavy strain' from 1,000 per cent increase in councillor complaints

The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) can reveal that Leicestershire County Council has experienced a 1,200 per cent increase in councillor complaints – from just eight between May 2024 to April 2025 – before going up to 104 complaints from May 2025 to April 27, 2026.

According to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, most complaints were in the single digits between May 2021 and April 2025, before rising sharply shortly after the Reform minority administration took over.

Despite this, a leading council officer has said that the number of complaints ‘didn’t [mean] a lot of things [were] going wrong’.

FOI requests seen by the LDRS also reveal that a majority of these complaints were made against Reform councillors, with 97 complaints filed against them between May 2025 and April 2026.

Reports show 51 of these complaints against Reform councillors were made by members of the public, 32 were made by county council members of staff, three were made by members of other organisations – including other councils, MPs and public bodies – and 11 complaints from other councillors.

Six complaints were also made about Conservative Party members, and one was made about an independent councillor.

It follows a meeting of the county council’s Constitution and Ethics committee, during which councillors were updated on the Member’s Code of Conduct and the number of complaints that were impacting council resources ‘significantly’.

Conservative Councillor Craig Smith pointed out during the meeting that the report showed a ‘dramatic increase in complaints’.

He added: “There have been thousands and thousands of taxpayers’ money and resources used on these complaints.”

Fiona McMillian, chief legal and monitoring officer at Leicestershire County Council, told the committee that many of the complaints came from members of the public who ‘see members behaving in a certain way online’.

She added: “They (the public) believe that because they (councillors) have made any kind of comment, it is a breach of the code of conduct.

“I have to write to each of those people and say, ‘You might find that post to be offensive or you might not like it … but if it does not relate to the role of Leicestershire County Council, the business of this council … then they are not acting in their official capacity.

“There have been a significant number of those over the year.”

Ms McMillian added: “We could have 200 complaints, and out of those, 10 might only be valid complaints.

“Just because there’s a lot, doesn’t mean there’s a lot of things going wrong.

“It has been a huge strain on resources over the last few months.”

Between October 2025 and July 2026, the council recorded 87 complaints, of which 40 were dismissed. However, 12 are currently under external investigation.

However, a number of actions and ‘informal’ resolutions were taken against Reform councillors Cllr Michael Squires, Cllr Kim Robinson, and an apology from council leader Dan Harrison to Conservative councillor Craig Smith, as well as complaints upheld against Restore Britain councillor Charles Whitford.

A report seen by the LDRS shows that external investigation costs have exceeded £5,700.