Minutes:
The Sub-Committee considered an allegation made by Mr David Wood that Councillor Steven Burkmar had breached the Council’s Local Code of Conduct in that:-
(a) he had failed to declare in the Register of Financial and Other Interests, within the required 28 days that he no longer had a financial interest in the Star and Garter Public House;
(b) he had failed to declare in the Register of Financial and Other Interests, within the required 28 days that he was no longer employed by the Wellington Pub Co Ltd;
(c) he had failed to declare in the Register of Financial and Other Interests, within the required 28 days that he had been made bankrupt;
(d) he had wrongly declared in the Register of Financial and Other Interests that he was the “joint Licensee” of the Herschel Arms – in accordance with the new licensing legislation there is no such thing as “joint licensee” and
(e) he had wrongly declared on his bankruptcy form dated 26th October 2005 and before the Guildford County Court that his occupation was that of a “salesman”.
The allegations had been referred by the Standards Board for England to the Monitoring Officer for investigation and, in accordance with the procedure previously agreed by the Standards Committee, he had delegated the investigation to Elaine Crawford, Solicitor (Contracts) i.e. the Investigating Officer.
The Investigating Officer’s final written report outlining the results of her investigation and her conclusions were submitted for consideration.
The Sub-Committee’s attention was drawn to the fact that allegation (a) above had already been investigated and determined by the Sub-Committee in relation to a complaint made by Councillor Christine Small and had therefore been omitted from the investigation. As regards the other allegations the Investigating Officer concluded the following:
1. That in respect of allegation (b) above, there had been no breach of the Code of Conduct as Councillor Burkmar had never been an employee of The Wellington Pub Co but merely a tenant as lease holder of the Star and Garter Public House and could therefore not make a declaration that he was no longer an employee.
2. That in respect of allegation (c) above, there had been no breach of the Code of Conduct as Part 3 of the Code which related to the Register of Members’ Financial and Other Interests set out clearly the nature of the interests that had to be registered and these did not include bankruptcy of a Member.
3. That in respect of allegation (d) above, there had been no breach of the Code as the Licensing Act 2003 did not preclude applications for premises licences being made in joint names and the Council’s Licensing Officer had confirmed that at the time of Mr Wood’s complaint Councillor Burkmar had been a joint licensee of the Herschel Arms Public House.
4. That in respect of allegation (e) above, there had been no breach of the Code of Conduct as Councillor Burkmar’s activities relating to his bankruptcy was a private matter which had nothing to do with his duties as a councillor and that there had been no breach with regard to failure to register an interest because he was not currently employed as a salesman.
The Sub-Committee, having considered the Investigating Officer’s report and an address made by Councillor Burkmar regarding this matter,
Resolved – That Councillor Burkmar has not failed to comply with the Council’s Local Code of Conduct.