TWO Wotton Town councillors are found to have breached the code of conduct after failing to declare interests before the controversial vote on the Symn Lane car park and homes application.

Councillors John and June Cordwelll, who boast a combined 64-year term on Wotton Town Council, were both found to have breached the code after an investigation.

The breach relates to a vote on plans from Colburn Homes for a 96-space car park and 10 houses off Symn Lane in Wotton, which took place in January.

Cllr John Cordwell, who has served on the town council for 38 years, has also been a representative on Gloucestershire County Council for 36 years, which owns part of the application site.

The investigation, led by Stroud District Council, found that “the county council’s financial wellbeing would be reasonably regarded as affected by the application”.

Due to Mr Cordwell’s position on the county council this means that he stands to have a personal interest in the application, which went undeclared.

Mrs Cordwell, who has been on the council for 26 years, was found to have also breached the code of conduct because she is Mr Cordwell’s spouse and therefore also has a personal interest.

Both of these personal interests, if declared, would have barred both councillors from the final vote on the Symn Lane decision.

However, both councillors voted to deny the application in January, with the final vote resting at eight against and two for.

Fellow town councillor Alex Wilkinson, stepped out of the final vote due to his registered interest as the then president of the chamber of trade.

The report, written by monitoring officer for SDC Karen Trickey, states: “Cllr John Cordwell breached the code, in that he had an interest by virtue of his membership of the county council which owned part of the application site; and as a result therefore, Cllr June Cordwell also breached the code having an interest by virtue of her husband Cllr John Cordwell’s interest.

“Unfortunately, in the course of this investigation, I have not found Cllr Cordwell’s account or understanding of relevant matters clear on his part nor wholly reliable.”

Following this decision both councillors could have been removed from the planning committee with further reprimands and urge them to undertake training.

However, the decision, published on Tuesday, July 11, was made to merely publish the report findings publicly and recommend that the town council “review how it might better deal with any future controversial applications.”

“The argument goes that the County Council has a financial interest in this, therefore I have a financial interest in it and my wellbeing would also be affected, this is nonsense, I don’t stand to gain anything,” said Cllr John Cordwell.

“I am fully convinced that had I voted in favour of the application in January the people who made the complaint would not have done so.

“The conclusion says that June and I could have spoken and voted if we had asked for and received a dispensation from the council to do so.

“I very carefully considered whether I had an interest.

“Had I believed we did have an interest we needed to declare and known that the dispensation route was open to us, we would have done so.

“The register [of interests] requires me to include ‘employment’.

“I was not sure I should have mentioned the County Council since it is not employment in the usual way - I am ‘employed’ by the electorate every four years.”

Town councillors Paul Barton, Terry Luker, Andra Proctor and Christopher Young were also part of the investigation but were not found to have liable of any breaches.