EAST BERGHOLT PARISH COUNCIL

Persistent or Vexatious Correspondence and Complaints Policy

1. Introduction

East Bergholt Parish Council does not tolerate bullying, harassment or
intimidation, in any form, of any of its employees or councillors. This includes
such behaviour from members of the public and Parish Council
employees/councillors alike. This policy is to protect against persistent or
vexatious correspondence and complaints including face-to-face interactions.

2. Defining persistent or vexatious correspondence and complaints.

Persistent or vexatious correspondence/complaints can be characterised in
the following ways:

 Behaviour which is obsessive, persistent, harassing, prolific,
repetitious, and/or
 Behaviour which is designed to cause extreme distress, bully, humiliate
and intimidate specific individuals and/or the corporate body, and/or
 Frequent correspondence timed to cause the council maximum
disruption and workload, and/or
 Behaviour which displays an insistence on pursuing unmeritorious
issues, trivial points and/or unrealistic outcomes beyond all reason,
and/or
 Displays an insistence upon pursuing complaints or issues in an
unreasonable and abusive manner, and/or
 Repeated and/or frequent and/or simultaneous requests for
information, whether or not those requests are made under the access
to information legislation, and/or
 Behaviour where former employees/councillors are contacted to try to
undermine the council or councillors, and/or
 Behaviour which has the effect of hindering the council’s ability to go
about its democratic business due to the extreme workload generated,
and/or
 Behaviour where the aim is character assassination, and/or
 Behaviour characterised by a refusal to accept that issues raised are
not within the power of the council to investigate, change or influence.
 Use of social media to repeatedly contact/tag or discuss East Bergholt
Parish Council in a defamatory manner.

3. Use of this policy

In the first instance the Clerk or a Councillor will consult the Chair of the
Council. With the Chair’s agreement, the correspondent/complainant will be
contacted in writing (also providing a copy of this policy), to explain why the
behaviour is a concern and request them to change their behaviour.

If the behaviours persist and the Clerk or Councillors identify behaviour which
they think exhibits these characteristics, and which they believe may be
persistent or vexatious, they should refer it to the Strategy, Policy and Finance
Committee which can invite the person(s) to the meeting to discuss the matter
under closed session (so as not to disclose personal data publicly).

If the Strategy, Policy and Finance Committee agrees with the assessment, it
should prepare a brief statement of why it considers the correspondence
and/or the complaint(s) to be persistent or vexatious, including its effect upon
the Council, the Clerk, Councillors and/or the village.

The Council may impose sanctions which may include:

 Allowing the correspondent/complainant to communicate with only one
councillor/employee;
 Allowing the correspondent/complainant to communicate only in a
specific way, for example by letter rather than by email or telephone.
 Not responding to the correspondent/complainant’s further enquiries
and communications on the same matter if no substantive new issue
is raised;
 Not responding to all the correspondent/complainant’s enquiries and
communications to the Council for 6 months if no substantive new
issue is raised.

4. Handling correspondence and complaints deemed to be persistent or
vexatious

The Clerk/Council will write to the correspondent/complainant advising them
that their correspondence/complaint has been determined to be persistent or
vexatious and giving the reason for that decision.
The notification should state which sanction has been imposed. They should
be advised that the decision will be reviewed in six months from the date of
the letter advising them that their correspondence/complaint has been
determined to be persistent or vexatious. There is no appeal against a
decision that correspondence or a complaint is persistent or vexatious. The
County and District Councillors will be informed that a constituent has been
designated as a persistent or vexatious correspondent/complainant.

Approved and adopted by East Bergholt Parish Council: 13/02/2026
Date of review: February 2027