Pecuniary Interests and Working Groups

Question

Parish Councillor lives directly next door to a conference centre .Which has been there for over 25 years.

She has complained to the parish council and so have 2 or 3 other people who live close by about noise and traffic.They all moved in knowing the centre was there.

The vast majority of us who live nearby don't have an issue.

This Councillor has proposed (without declaring an interest ) that a working group is set up to liaise with the conference centre . She was voted on to it with one other councillor at a Parish Council meeting.
My question: is this is a conflict of interest or a pecuniary interest ? Should this Councillor be on a working group when she is one of the complainants and lives next door.

When the Chairman was challenged he was rude and said there are no pecuniary or other interests unless a decision is being made ?

Is that right?

Answer 1

As far as i am aware this would not be classed as a pecuniary interest. The councillor does not own the conference centre.

Most reasonable people would believe that there neighbour affects them, but apparently the DPI rules don't apply.

https://www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk/planning/318-planning-features/13301-disclosable-pecuniary-interests--what-did-the-government-intend-to-capture

Comments

The councillor would need to declare a non registerable interest as the building is next door to her also not sure that they should be on a work party due to them being bias

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We did think it must be some form of interest and she is definitely biased.
No interest was declared and she participated in the session and commented on the issues (which only affect her and a couple of others).

Not the sort of transparency expected of a Cllr

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Thank you . A really interesting article and  very useful too

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Far from banning someone from the working party I would propose that the working part should have a balance of those for and against the proposal in the interest of a balanced debate and investigation and hopefully a conclusion to report to the council

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I personally don't think someone with an interest, disclosable or otherwise, should be in the working group but I accept that there are arguments in favour of just that!  However, important to remember that working groups can't have decision making powers and can only make recommendations so unlikely to breach code of conduct anyway.

Answer 2

Since a parish council has no powers (other than the ability to make a representation to a higher authority) in relation to either noise or traffic it would all appear to be a colossal waste of time and effort and perhaps illustrative of a PC (or components thereof) that don’t really understand the extent and / or limitations their function.

Since there are no ‘powers’ there cannot really be any meaningful decision so there cannot be a conflict….