The Ombudsman received a complaint that a Member (“the Member”) of Bridgend Town Council (“the Council”) breached the Code of Conduct.
It was alleged that the Member had: failed to declare a personal and prejudicial interest in a Council meeting; had taken part in a discussion in the Council meeting when he should not have done given his interests; and that by taking part in the discussion, he had tried to influence a decision on the matter discussed to gain an advantage for his wife.
Our finding, under section 69 of the Local Government Act 2000, was that our report on our investigation be referred to the Monitoring Officer of Bridgend County Borough Council for consideration by its Standards Committee.
The Standards Committee found that the Member had failed to comply with the Code of Conduct. Its sanction was to suspend the Member from the Relevant Authority, as set out in the Local Government Act 2000, for 6 months.
The Standards Committee decision is available here . The decision was subject to appeal by the Member. Following the appeal the Standards Committee decided to uphold the original 6 months suspension.