Graham Brown
Dear East Devon District Council,
Please advise how many and who of Mr Graham Brown's clients/customers from his planning consultancy Grey Green Planning had land accepted/allocated in the Local Development Framework
Mr Graham Brown was chairman of the LDF.
I believe running a planning consultancy while chairing East Devons Local development Framework is a conflict of interest. Please also advise the Councils view on this?
Mr Graham Brown is also chairman of East Devon Business Forum where various land development opportunities have been discussed. Again I would consider this a conflict of interests. Please advise the councils view.
This is a three point request. Please ensure all points are responded to.
Yours faithfully,
helen newman
Mrs Newman
Thank you for your email. Your three points are answered below:
1. Information about Mr Brown's private business clients is not held by the District Council. You would need to contact Mr Brown direct about this.
2. All Members declare any personal or business interests and these are updated regularly and can be accessed here http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/roi_graham_b... If a Member thinks that he or she has an interest to declare in relation to a particular topic, these are declared and minuted during meetings and are publicly accessible.
3. Please refer to my answer to point (2) above.
If you have concerns that a Councillor has not declared an interest, please check information on our website which details how you can make a complaint to our Standards Committee http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/councillor_c...
I hope this is helpful.
Regards
Kate Symington
Information and Complaints Officer
East Devon District Council
01395 517417
www.eastdevon.gov.uk
Dear Kate Symington,
This request remains unanswered. I accept your reply to point 1 but would suggest as it is obviously a conflict of interest that the council investigate and take appropriate action.
Point 2 and 3 I have asked for the councils view and you have not given this.
Councillor Graham Brown declared his Planning Consultancy on this declaration of interest. Therefore the council had this information and yet still appointed him head of the LDF?? I would like to know why this has happened when it is obviously a conflict of interest.
With regards
Helen Newman
Yours sincerely,
helen newman
Mrs Newman
All information held in respect of this request, has been provided. Under the Freedom of Information Act, an authority is not obliged to create new information or to give an opinion or judgement which is not already recorded. It is for Members to declare interests as they feel appropriate and necessary and this is duly recorded and publicly available.
I refer you back to my previous answers and remind you that if you wish to complain about the conduct of one of our Members you need to do so via the proper channels - details of which were in my email.
If you would like to make a complaint about the way your request has been dealt with, please email [email address] or fill in our online complaint form at www.eastdevon.gov.uk/making_a_complaint
Kate Symington
Information and Complaints Officer
East Devon District Council
01395 517417
www.eastdevon.gov.uk
Dear Kate Symington,
As you have managed to find a way to avoid answering the question I will rephrase it in a way that does need to be answered
My FOI request is as follows:
Why did EDDC appoint Graham Brown to be chairman of the Local Development Framework while he was running a planning consultancy? This is clearly a conflict of interest.
I would also like to add for people intested in this matter that Graham Brown is also chairman of the East Devon Business Forum which is currently under investigation as some are concerned EDBF have had influence over planning in East Devon
Yours sincerely,
helen newman
Thank you for your email. We will respond to this question as soon as possible.
Kate Symington
Information and Complaints Officer
East Devon District Council
01395 517417
www.eastdevon.gov.uk
Mrs Newman
Thank you for your email.
Cllr Brown was appointed Chair of the LDF Panel in May 2009 following his appointment as Deputy Leader, replacing Cllr Franklin.
The Member Code of Conduct exists to require Members to record interests in the register of interests and to declare interests at meetings as appropriate. From time to time, all Members are likely to have conflicts of interest and, where they are disclosable pecuniary interests, they are barred from participating in a council meeting. Equally, it is true to say that Members may bring with them particular expertise and knowledge which can be an asset to the committees they serve.
In addition to this, there are special arrangements in place to deal with planning applications from Councillors.
Neither the legislation, nor the guidance, bars people with conflicts of interest from becoming councillors but, instead, provides a framework for these issues to be properly managed.
I hope this is helpful.
Kate Symington
Information and Complaints Officer
East Devon District Council
01395 517417
www.eastdevon.gov.uk
Dear Kate Symington,
No Kate Symington, it is not in any way helpful and you have still not answered the question.
WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU??????????
:Please answer the question ;
WHY WAS GRAHAM BROWN APPOINTED CHAIRMAN OF THE LDF WHILE RUNNING A PLANNING CONSULTANCY WHEN THIS IS A CONFLICT OF INTERESTS.
As this has already happened can you please tell me what processes and checks are in place to avoid protential conflicts of interest?
Yours sincerely,
helen newman
I am sorry but I will not be able to respond to your message until Monday
17th December 2012.
If your message needs urgent attention, please access our website at
[1]www.eastdevon.gov.uk for contact details for individual services, or to
contact our Customer Service Centre.
Alternatively, you can dial 01395 516551 to speak to a Customer Services
Officer.
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http://www.eastdevon.gov.uk/email_discla...
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References
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Dear East Devon District Council,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of East Devon District Council's handling of my FOI request 'Graham Brown'.
A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/gr...
Yours faithfully,
helen newman
Mrs Newman
We have provided answers to your questions in terms of Cllr Brown's appointment as chairman of LDF and also explained to you the processes and checks in place to ensure Members declare interests when appropriate. I have also outlined to you the procedure to follow if you wish to make a complaint about an individual Councillor.
We have no further information to provide and I confirm that, as Monitoring Officer, Denise Lyon has agreed with me that we can not usefully add anything to our previous responses. If you remain dissatisfied, you should now complain direct to the Information Commissioner www.ico.gov.uk
Kate Symington
Information and Complaints Officer
East Devon District Council
01395 517417
www.eastdevon.gov.uk
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Ron Close left an annotation ()
this is probably what you would expect EDDC to say It would be a waste of time to make a complaint now as under the new procedure the panel will only meet if the investigating officer together with the so called independent person feels there is a case to be heard and no doubt EDDC will not find that there is a case to hear
in any case they are all members of the Tory party who will defend their own all the time.