Where do I stand regarding Declaration of Interest

Question

I am a parish councillor and also trustee / chairman of a local charitable trust responsible for managing the village hall and the playing field under a lease agreement with the Parochial Church Council.                                                                                                                   The Trust is planning a new kitchen extension, Planning Permission is being sought and this is an agenda item for the next council meeting. As a Trustee I work in  voluntary capacity so there is no Pecuniary Interest, and my interpretation of Other Significant Interest in 'Local Councils Explained' (Meera Tharmarajah), is that I should declare an interest but need not withdraw from the meeting.             The expectation of the Clerk and the Chairman of the parish council is that I withdraw from the meeting from that agenda item. An interesting aside is that the Chair of the council is also a member of the Trust's Management Advisory Committee, so perhaps also has a 'Other Significant Interest'!                                                                                                                                                                  Am I correct in my interpretation?

Answer 1

I wouldn't venture to say what is "correct"! It could be argued that the new kitchen will be a benefit to you that could, with enough effort, be valued. Or it could be argued that the benefit is too tenuous to count as pecuniary.

In the days of the Standards Board for England, I have seen a ruling that members of the committee of a charitable body seeking a decision from the council to grant a lease were deemed to have been incorrect to remain in the meeting and vote. Although no action was deemed necessary, and the decision still stood (even though it would have gone the other way had the councillors not voted).

However, I'd be tempted to say that considerations of this kind are nowadays mostly academic. It seems perfectly clear that your involvement with the council decision would be exceedingly unlikely to trigger a criminal prosecution. Apart from that, the rules have no teeth now, and Standards Officers are anyway reluctant to get involved in borderline cases of minimal value.

If you pressed me for an answer, I think personally I would err on the safe side and withdraw from the discussion and vote, perhaps after making the case in favour of the planning permission. The council is anyway only a consultee, and will be ignored unless it offers substantive planning considerations for or against the application. Opinions don't count!