If Hadleigh Town Council were following its own standing orders, councillors would have been informed of a code of conduct complaint against Cllr Rolf Beggerow at last Thursday's Full Council meeting.  

They were not and when Cllr Knock asked why the decision of the District's Monitoring Officer (MO) to uphold the complaint and make recommendations to the councillor and the council was not on the agenda, he was told that the council was seeking 'clarification'.

Hadleigh Nub News understands that Cllr Knock has asked Town Clerk, Wendy Brame, what clarification is sought, given that the decision of the MO is final and that there is no appeal. The fact remains that a code of conduct made against Cllr Beggerow was upheld and sanctions recommended.  

Wendy Brame 'seeking clarification'

Cllr Beggerow's conflicting interests have been previously reported by Hadleigh Nube News. While he has been promoting the Layham Road Sportsground redevelopment project, including a new pavilion and a full-size artificial pitch, potentially costing the town over £2 million, he is also the Treasurer of Hadleigh United Football Club. According to the council's business case, HUFC is the main user of the new pitch and one of the main users of the new pavilion. 

Given that the Monitoring Officer had stated that Cllr Beggerow should not have remained in the room when the project was discussed, let alone spoken at length, proposed and voted on items related to the project, it came as a shock to some councillors that he did not leave the room on Thursday evening when the new pavilion business case was discussed.  

Cllr Beggerow spoke on the item and went on to vote regarding an allocation of budget towards the fees for a review of the design of the pavilion and for a check of design with the Suffolk Football Association.

And it would appear that other councillors remain in the dark about the facts of the complaint and decision. When Cllr Beggerow was challenged by Cllr Wiltshire about his interest in the item, he and the Town Clerk protested that he had 'declared an interest' at the start of the meeting.

Cllr Wiltshire asked what the nature of his disclosure was because the Monitoring Officer had stated that he should leave the room. Other councillors sprang to Cllr Beggerow's defence, asking Cllr Wiltshire what she meant.

The Deputy Mayor and Chair of the meeting, Cllr Bill Wilson, going so far as to say that councillors had no right to say whether someone should leave because of an interest, to which Cllr Roberts replied 'but they have a right to ask'. 

Hadleigh Nub News is reminded of the time when Cllr Knock was called back to Babergh District Council's Standards Committee for not complying fully with a sanction issued - to apologise to the Mayor. Frank Minns, who was Mayor at the time, complained that Cllr Knock had not apologised to him specifically when he had apologised to 'all councillors'.

Frank Minns put in a complaint following a heated discussion in which Cllr Knock called him 'a fool' and criticised his colleagues for pursuing a legal process against a member of the public who had complained to the council about the erection of Christmas trees in the High Street.  

As Hadleigh Nub News has previously reported, Cllr Knock resigned after last week's meeting when the findings of the independent review into the recruitment process were again to be 'noted' rather than discussed. Cllr Knock (and other councillors) feared that the resulting report was a 'cover up'.

*Although there is no appeal against a code of conduct being upheld by the monitoring officer. Those found guilty can go to the Local Government Ombudsman to consider if there was fault in the way the council considered the complaint. The Ombudsman will only investigate complaints if there is sufficient injustice to warrant an involvement or it is considered to be in the public interest to do so. The Ombudsman could not investigate the actions of the town or parish council itself.

Cllr Angela Wiltshire asking questions