Like Gavin Whenman, I'd seen the reports on Tory PPC Ian Oakley who was convicted of a campaign of harassment against political opponents.

The issue of councillors out of control came up in the pub recently after one of our parish meetings. Some of us idly discussed if we were vulnerable to fraud.

It seems our local school has spent £75,000 on some new play equipment. It's nice equipment, but £75K is an eye-watering amount. Especially as it appears the money was spent by the outgoing headteacher without the governors properly authorising it.

Could one of our councillors access such money and not have to account for it?

We couldn't see it happening for one main reason: Glenys. Our clerk, as with most parish and town councils, holds everything together. She sees all and knows all.

It's a fragile safety net but one which generally holds.

According to the Standards Board the number of allegations of improper conduct it was asked to investigate in 20007/08 was 2,869. This compares with 3,836 in 20005/06.

Only 5% of requests came from councillors, while two-thirds came from the public. Parish and town councillors were the object of half the complaints while much more powerful county councils made up only 5%.

And in a third of allegations the board found no evidence while in half of them no further action was taken.

These figures are open to a number of interpretations but it may simply be that, despite the case of Ian Oakley and Private Eye's Rotten Boroughs column, actual malfeasance by councillors is pretty low.