Council cleared over purchase of house by chief executive from development partner

There was no evidence that Craven District Council acted improperly when its chief executive bought a property from a development partner, an independent review has concluded.

In a report Liz Bashforth, an independent solicitor and monitoring officer, said: “I have not seen any evidence to suggest that decisions taken by the council have not been taken properly in relation to both the Granville Street and Horse Close sites as a result of [Paul Shevlin's] purchase of a property on the Granville Street site.”

She added: “In my view, the way the situation has been handled cannot reasonably be said to be sufficient to have brought the council into disrepute.”

The report did, however, make three recommendations. These were that:

1. Declarations of interest, including potential interests, should be put in writing at an early stage;

2. Processes should be put in place to pro-actively manage any subsequent issues; and

3. Any development control decisions which affect members or certain officers, should be referred to the planning committee or taken under delegated powers and the decision, and the reasons for it, should be recorded and published.

Cllr Richard Foster, Craven District Council’s leader, said: “Following Paul Shevlin’s house purchase, as Leader, I requested information relating to the robustness and application of council procedures.

“This information has now been collated and reviewed by an external officer, independent of the council.  The review concludes that the council has a good governance framework, including model policies and procedures.”

Cllr Foster added that he was satisfied with the information provided by the independent officer, and that arrangements were now underway to implement the recommendations outlined within her report.