A: No your council needs to act quickly and carefully. This is unacceptable behaviour and is often the cause for the Parish Clerk’s resignation. Some Parish Councillors do not realise that their ‘robust’ language is upsetting and could easily be construed as bullying.

A word from the Chairman to the Councillor should be sufficient but if the practice persists the Chairman should refer to Standing Orders. If this fails you should consider reporting the Councillor to the Local Standards Board. Your Council should have in place a Grievance Procedure and should have set up a Staffing Committee to hear complaints from staff to resolve issues like this before they escalate too far.