Neighbour objecting to planning also a parish councillor voting in planning meeting

Question

Our neighbour is our local parish councillor, he is also part of the planning committee for the village.  When we attended the meeting to vote on the application he was allowed to give a vote (refusing) is this allowed?  Nothing was declared at the beginning of the meeting to say he had any personal interest.  The meeting was the 16 October and we are still waiting for the minutes to be published.

On a previous application we learnt that this particular council used their annual budget to try and object to the planning......we have converted three barns into houses........it all feels very personal and didn't know if there was anything we could look into?
Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks

Answer 1

Any meeting where a Parish Councillor has a pecuniary or non pecuniary interest they should declare in the interest of transparency. They should then request a dispensation if appropriate - I donot believe where its pecuniary there should be any dispensation but that is up to the Council.

The Councillor should then not take part in any discussion or vote - in many councils the Councillor will at that point in the agenda leave the meeting room and be called back in after the resolution has been made.

Just my opinion but if its very transparent then there are no grounds for appeal.