Declarations of Interest
Members should declare the existence and nature of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and Non Statutory Interest as defined by the Members’ Code of Conduct in respect of:
a) any business on the agenda
b) any matters arising out of those items
and if appropriate, withdraw from the meeting at the relevant time.
Minutes:
Members were reminded by the Monitoring Officer that any Councillor in arrears of Council Tax by more than two months must not vote in decisions on or which might affect budget calculations, and must disclose at the meeting that this restriction applied to them. A failure to comply with these requirements was a criminal offence under Section 106 of the Local Government and Finance Act 1992.
The Monitoring Officer added that any Members who were tenants of a Council property should declare an interest for any budget setting item, but these Members had an automatic dispensation to remain in the room to speak and vote on the items in question.
The Monitoring Officer also reminded Members that votes on budget and Council Tax setting items would be done by recorded vote as required by the Local Authorities (Standing Orders) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2014.
The following interests were declared:
|
Minute Number |
Member |
Level of Interest |
|
CL67-23/24 |
Councillor Chris Kane |
Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (in receipt of a mine workers pension) |
|
Councillor Duncan McGregor |
Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (in receipt of a mine workers pension) |
|
|
Councillor Sally Renshaw |
Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (in receipt of a mine workers pension) |
|
|
Councillor Janet Tait |
Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (in receipt of a mine workers pension) |
|
|
CL69-23/24 |
Councillor David Bennett |
Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (Council tenant) |
|
Councillor Mary Dooley |
Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (Council tenant) |
|
|
CL69-23/24 & CL70-23/24 |
Councillor Steve Fritchley |
Other Registerable Interest (Director of Dragonfly Development Limited and Dragonfly Management (Bolsover) Limited) |
|
Councillor Emma Stevenson |
Other Registerable Interest (Director of Dragonfly Development Limited and Dragonfly Management (Bolsover) Limited) |
|
|
Councillor Janet Tait |
Other Registerable Interest (Director of Dragonfly Development Limited and Dragonfly Management (Bolsover) Limited) |
|
|
Councillor Deborah Watson |
Other Registerable Interest (Director of Dragonfly Development Limited and Dragonfly Management (Bolsover) Limited) |
|
|
Councillor Carol Wood |
Other Registerable Interest (Director of Dragonfly Development Limited and Dragonfly Management (Bolsover) Limited) |
The Monitoring Officer reported that he had received a request from Councillor Steve Fritchley, Leader of the Council, for a dispensation for himself and Councillors Emma Stevenson, Janet Tait, Deborah Watson and Carol Wood, to remain in the meeting, take part in the debate and vote on the Medium Term Financial Plan 2023/24 – 2027/28. The Monitoring Officer advised that the Council could grant a dispensation to enable a Councillor to participate and vote on a matter in which they had an Other Registerable Interest. Requests had to be made in writing and had to be made on one of the grounds set out in the Council’s Constitution. The Monitoring Officer stated that the dispensation would fall under the grounds that the District Council considered that it was otherwise appropriate to grant a dispensation.
The Monitoring Officer read out the request for a dispensation, which stated ‘I would like to request a dispensation at Council on Wednesday to allow myself and Cllrs Stevenson, Tait, Watson and Wood to remain present for the debate and vote for the Medium Term Financial Plan report at item 7 on the agenda.
The reasons for this are twofold: ... view the full minutes text for item 64