Should a Parish Concillor declared an interest in a piece of land if he is a trustee for the land

Question

I find my self in a difficult situation of coming across  a potential planning application where, three trustees of a local charity who control the land in the parish, are also local councillors. One of whom,  is the clerk.

Two of the councillors have shown their trusteeship on their declaration of Intrest, but remain in the room at meetings while the matter is discussed and take part in the discussion.

My question is, should they have informed the Monitoring Office to obtain a dispensation and should they be allowed to speak with planning officers, if,  they have not disclosed the fact they are on this Charitable Trust?

Thank you for your assistance in this matter

Answer 1

The Parish Council can't determine the Planning application but can only act as a consultee and comment on it.  We'll assume that as Trustees they have legal control of money and/or property for the charity. 

Potentially  the  three trustees could seek to influence the Parish Council response but would lay themselves open to the charge of a conflict of interest  However, they could also argue that they are acting in the best interests of the charity. On balance I would suggest they leave the room when the application is discussed.   I would suspect it would be rare  for a  PC to bring something to a Planning Officer's attention that would have a large impact on the application being  granted or refused.

But a   bit more info might be useful.  Could you specify exactly what you mean by "Control the land" ?   Are the Charity the applicant, for the Planning  application, or  are the Trustee's applying  for permission?   Or has the charity applied but named the trustee as their agent for the application?