FIVE formal complaints have been made against county councillors over the last year, it has emerged.

A new report has been published on the behaviour of Worcestershire County Council's 57 members since July last year - with five investigations having taken place around alleged breaches of the Code of Conduct.

It reveals how one dispute centred around a row over anti-social behaviour at a youth club, with a councillor threatening to involve West Mercia Police because he thought a young person was being wrongly "victimised" by the public.

The complainer then told County Hall the councillor in question had "implied local residents were lying" and was trying to "intimidate residents from voicing concerns".

A complaint around breaching the Code of Conduct was rejected by the council's monitoring officer, who said the principle of freedom of speech had to be upheld.

A second complaint was around a member of the public claiming a councillor "acted dishonestly in email exchanges", but it was based on a misunderstanding so it was withdrawn.

Another politician was subject to claims they made "inappropriate comments at a council event", which was resolved informally through a letter of apology.

The report says a fourth complaint was around a councillor offering a "poor level of service" after they were asked to invest in a good cause using a £10,000 personal fund.

Every county councillor gets £10,000 a year to spend on worthy projects in their patch, with the complainer upset about what they perceived to be a brush-off, but County Hall's legal team said it was "entirely down to them" to decide how to use the fund.

A fifth complaint around an alleged Code of Conduct breach was about events at another council, which was withdrawn after the monitoring officer pointed it out.

The report, from the council's head of legal services Simon Mallinson, said it was important that elected politicians should be able to express robust views without the fear of crossing the line.

He said: "There are some wider points worth drawing out - the complaints process is about the conduct of councillors, not the merits of a position taken or whether one agrees or disagrees with comments made - which is more a matter for the ballot box.

"It is perfectly possible for elected members and their constituents to exchange diametrically opposed points of view, even robustly, without crossing the line into unacceptable conduct.

"The (councillor) remains electorally accountable to constituents - this is an important point for freedom of speech and local democracy."