Agenda and minutes

Councillors Adrian Edwards and Mollie Lock declared an interest in Agenda Item 3, and reported that, as their interest was personal and prejudicial but not a disclosable pecuniary interest, they would be leaving the meeting during the course of consideration of the matter.

(Councillors Mollie Lock and Adrian Edwards declared a personal and prejudicial interest but not a disclosable pecuniary interest in Agenda item 3 by virtue of the fact that they were two of the Members that had applied for a dispensation. As their interest was personal and prejudicial they took no part in the debate or voting on the matter).

The Committee considered a report (Agenda Item 3) concerning an application for dispensations for Councillors David Allen, Howard Bairstow, Jeff Beck, Brian Bedwell, Dominic Boeck, Jeff Brooks, Hilary Cole, Roger Croft, Richard Crumly, Adrian Edwards, Sheila Ellison, Marcus Franks, John Horton, Carol Jackson-Doerge, Alan Law, Mollie Lock, Royce Longton, Alan Macro, Tim Metcalfe, Andrew Rowles, Anthony Stansfeld, Julian Swift-Hook, Ieuan Tuck and Tony Vickers to be able to debate and vote on Recommendation 4 to Item 15 Council Tax Reduction Scheme 2014/15 on the 12 December 2013 Council agenda as well as any associated amendments or discussions arising at the meeting.

One of the Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPIs) which Members were required to disclose under the Authority’s Code of Conduct was “Membership of other bodies: Details of any body exercising functions of a public nature of which you are a member or in a position of general control or management.”

It followed, therefore, that a District Councillor who was also a Town or Parish Councillor had a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (DPI) to disclose in relation to item 15 (Council Tax Reduction Scheme 2014/15 – specifically Recommendation 4) on the 12 December 2013 Council agenda as it included a recommendation that “No transfer of funding will be made to parish and town councils”.

The Standards Committee was asked to consider whether or not to grant a dispensation on the basis that “the authority considers that the dispensation is in the interests of persons living in the authority’s area” might be applicable. This was due to the fact that 25 of the 48 Councillors who had notified Officers that they would be present at the Council meeting had notified the Monitoring Officer that they had a DPI. The Monitoring Officer was of the view that this issue was substantive and a failure to grant a dispensation would impede the transaction of the business because of the number of members having the same DPI.

RESOLVED that:

Councillors David Allen, Howard Bairstow, Jeff Beck, Brian Bedwell, Dominic Boeck, Jeff Brooks, Hilary Cole, Roger Croft, Richard Crumly, Adrian Edwards, Sheila Ellison, Marcus Franks, John Horton, Carol Jackson-Doerge, Alan Law, Mollie Lock, Royce Longton, Alan Macro, Tim Metcalfe, Andrew Rowles, Anthony Stansfeld, Julian Swift-Hook, Ieuan Tuck and Tony Vickers be granted a dispensation be able to debate and vote on Recommendation 4 to Item 15 Council Tax Reduction Scheme 2014/15 as well as any associated amendments or discussions arising at the meeting.