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I sent a Freedom of Information request to all local authorities in Leicestershire recently, asking for details of complaints made by officers against elected members.

I understand that formal complaints can be made through the local standards board, but I wanted details of internal complaints.

Surprisingly, all but one of the authorities questioned got back to me to say there were no records of such incidents in the past three years.

What utter rubbish.

I’ve been around political journalism long enough to know that there are, unfortunately, a very small minority of councillors who use their power and position to browbeat officers.

On my last patch, a metropolitan council, an opposition councillor was notorious for bringing female staff members to tears with his arrogant outbursts. His “power” had gone to his head.

I’ve seen examples here in Leicester of members being impolite to officers in public – I don’t believe that there has only been a single recorded incident of that behaviour going too far in private.

So back to the issue – the only council which coughed-up and said it had a recorded incident was Oadby and Wigston, and the incident in question was in the last municipal year.

Here’s their emailed response:

There was one allegation of bullying initially made, but this was not pursued by the complainant. We consider that to provide the name of the Councillor and the rank and department of the complainant is exempt under Section 42 of the Freedom of Information Act in that this amounts to personal data from which persons can be identified … The particular complaint was of a single incident and complainant had not indicated they wished it to be taken as a formal complaint.

So, what do you know? Can you identify the councillor in question?

What was the bullying incident which was seemingly serious enough to be reported, yet frivolous enough to be quickly withdrawn?

Email me on davidmaclean@leicestermercury.co.uk

One of the things I’ve wanted to do since setting up this blog is use the collective wisdom and intelligence of my readers to make my stories more interesting and relevant.

There are two people at the Mercury dedicated to politics, plus our lobby correspondent in London. Employing three full-time politics staffers shows how seriously the Mercury takes our local political scene – but extra help is always appreciated.

Today’s front page is about public sector pay. It is based on data in a pretty big spreadsheet which I combed through yesterday.

In keeping with my new resolution of uploading as much raw data to this blog as possible for you to comb through, I’ve included a link to the uploaded spreadsheet below.

Click the link, take a look at it, and if you notice anything interesting that you’d like to see me looking into further then leave a message in the comments, or send me an @reply on Twitter.

If it works, I’ll be doing it more often.

Click here for the full spreadsheet

They’re addictive these smartphones. They call the Blackberry a ‘crackberry’ for a reason, and I break out into a cold sweat when I don’t have my iPhone by my side.

So which local councillor is having to do a little bit of cold-turkey after council chiefs confiscated his handheld companion?

Answers on a postcard…

There’s a saying that was drilled into me by a former news editor: Never assume, it makes an ass of you and me. (Ass-u-me)

But after spending hours compiling an in-depth article on which businesses are bankrolling the county’s political parties, it could have been tempting to cut some corners as darkness fell outside the Mercury.

I’d spotted one wealthy donor who’d given his local party £5,000-a-year for the past three years. His name was the same as a local councillor, from the same party, who lives in the same tiny village. Surely it was the same person?

A quick phonecall proved my assumption would have been dramatically wrong.

“I live in a modest little house and drive a second-hand car. The only donation to the party I’ve made is my yearly subscription of a few quid. I’m no Lord Ashcroft, although I wouldn’t mind his money,” the startled politico said.

Never assume.