Independent Hemsworth Town Council and in particular Jean and her husband Gordon Eccles, have been the subject of controversy on many occasions, over the last 3 years, whilst they have been Hemsworth Town Councillors and that includes their Declarations of Interests.
This has been highlighted in a previous Ferret post where they declared an interest but failed to leave the room for the appointment of the internal auditor.
There are 2 declarations possible:
- A pecuniary declaration
and
- A non-pecuniary declaration
A pecuniary interest definitely means that the person declaring that interest must leave the room and take no part in any discussions at all.
A non-pecuniary declaration of interest is a little different:
What is a Non-Pecuniary interest? – this is an interest which is not pecuniary (as defined) but is nonetheless so significant that a member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts, would reasonably regard to be so significant that it would materially impact upon your judgement of the public interest.
It can mean the person making the declaration may be able to stay in the room but in practice hardly ever at all to comply with the rules and regulations, policies and procedures, Nolan Principles of standards and the general public’s expectations that are applicable to local Authorities employees and Councillors.
The declarations that are made should be in enough detail to allow the general public to make their own minds up to the course of action that the employees or councillors should take, whether they should stay in the room or leave and take no part in either the discussions or decision making process.
The Eccles’ made a non-pecuniary declaration on item 12 at the Town Council Meeting held on 16 June 2022, to consider offers for the plant and machinery.
Ferret understands that the few people who have sent offers to buy the machinery, are at the very least known to the Eccles as they also operate a groundworks company.
Ferret finds it hard to accept that the Chair of the Council and her husband then refused to leave the room, she didn’t even vacate the Chair when dealing with the selling of Council assets.
The Town Clerk, Mr Alan Draper, even admitted that a proper process for disposal hadn’t been followed and he had only contacted people known to the council if they would like to tender.
Ferret again finds this practice very hard to accept from all the parties involved but then again it is only the usual way that Independent Hemsworth Town Council now conducts business on behalf of this Community.
Fortunately the decision to sell all of the machinery was postponed for another month to allow wider reaching advertising to reach more potential buyers.
Jean Eccles did not seem very pleased with this outcome.
It will be interesting to see what Declaration of Interest they make the next time this comes before the Town Council, along with the appointment or re-appointment of the Internal Auditor, who was recommended to the Town Council by them previously…
This o find as quite wrong. These items were bought while they were councillors and are being sold while these are councillors and they have an interest.
I know, let’s buy some expensive equipment for the council and then sell (to us) as cheap as possible as it’s been used, 2nd hand, ‘not looked after’ but hardly used. No no no it should not be sold to councillors past or present