Quote:
Originally Posted by g jones
It was never an agenda item Andrew so why would I declare an interest until the item came up? Even when it did under budgets why would I get up and leave a local forum meeting. That's just petty. Saying 'I live in Hodder Street so I can't comment' is declaring an interest. Area Council minutes are summarised, not an absolute true record because we have had the issue of things being left out previously.
The fact remains, no-one said anything at the time because everything was above board so far as the public were concerned. Ditto Councillors who also did not make any comments at the time, or lodge a complaint when it happened. I think if there was a technical breach in their mind, they should have said it then and not now and perhaps given how transparent it all was, not lodged an official complaint.
Pathetic really and I hope you'll support me in stamping this sillyness out of local politics.
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One can't expect you to declare an interest if it's not on the agenda and somebody else brings it up, until they do bring it up, at which point you can. However you'd think that when you yourself bring the topic up under your Peel Ward Report, you would have previously declared an interest, it's not as if you didn't know it was coming up when you planned to speak on it.
I don't think you can use the 'minutes not being written up properly' as an excuse, you have to vote on the minutes being correct at the next meeting, or are you saying you don't read the minutes?
Did you or did you not declare an interest when it was on the budget agenda, in the way that you have declared an interest at the beginning of the meeting in the past, for example over the Neighbourhood Management Teams? In that instance you were aware interests have to be declared. I'm just trying to get the fact's clear here.
It would seem to be that you don't think you should have had to declare an interest officially and initially, in which case it would be easier to just say so, rather than saying you did declare an interest?