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Complaint no. LA/I/58 Concerning an alleged contravention of The Councillors' Code of Conduct by Councillor Eric Forbes of Inverclyde Council

1. Complaint number LA/I/58 alleged a contravention of the Councillors' Code of Conduct ("the Code") by Councillor Eric Forbes ("the respondent").

2. It was alleged that the respondent had contravened the Code, in particular, the key principles of Selflessness and Honesty.

3. The complaint was anonymous but given its potentially serious nature I decided to conduct an investigation. It was alleged that the respondent attended a meeting of the Council's Licensing and Registration Panel on the 10 December 2003 solely to support the interests of an applicant to the Panel for a licence for a Farmers Market. At the time he was employed part-time by a local trade association as a Town Centre Manager and therefore could have had a pecuniary interest in the application

4. Although the respondent had attended the meeting as a substitute for another councillor and had proposed an amendment to the application which would, if accepted, have favoured the applicant he stated that he had done so in his judgement on the merits of the application. He denied having any connection with the applicant company and I found no evidence to contradict this.

5. Having considered the information that arose from my investigation, I concluded that Councillor Eric Forbes had not contravened the Councillors' Code of Conduct.

D Stuart Allan,
Chief Investigating Officer.
Forsyth House
Innova Campus
Rosyth Europarc
Rosyth
Fife
KY11 2UU
08 July 2004