A Hadleigh town councillor has been found to have broken code of conduct rules in regards to a conflict of interests.

Cllr Rolf Beggerow, who is also the Hadleigh United treasurer, chaired the Layham Road Sports Ground sub-committee, which included plans for a 3G pitch, which the football club would have benefitted from.

Concerns were raised that he had a clear conflict of interest, but despite this Cllr Beggerow continued in the role, sparking a code of conduct complaint being made against him to the Babergh monitoring officer.

That complaint was upheld and sanctions put in place against Cllr Beggerow and the council after consulting with an Independent Person.

As part of the sanctions all of the decisions taken when Cllr Beggerow remained in the room when matters relating to the football club were discussed, need to be reviewed by the council.

Hadleigh Town treasurer Rolf Beggerow

Cllr Beggerow must also take part in further Code of Conduct training, to be undertaken as soon as possible.

Cllr Beggerow claimed he had sought advice from the town clerk Wendy Brame, who in turn asked advice from Suffolk Association of Local Councils and Babergh's monitoring officer.

He told Nub News: "When Hadleigh town council agreed to adopt the new LGA Code of Conduct at their meeting on 21 July 2022 I asked for clarification from the town clerk who in turn sought clarification from both SALC and the monitoring officer regarding my connection with Hadleigh United Football Club. 

"Based on that advice I read out a statement to the Council meeting on 18 August 2022 stating that based on the advice I have received, my connection with Hadleigh United Football Club did not require a declaration of pecuniary, other registrable or non-registerable Interest."

However, this contradicts the summing up in the monitoring officer's report while upholding the complaint, which read: "The advice that was sent relating to declaration of other registrable interests and non- registerable interests from the Monitoring Officer and SALC was correct."

Layham Road Sports Ground

The monitoring officer's summary also added: "Under the grounds of non- registrable interests, you should consider the nature of your relationships with relatives or close associates.

"The guidance states that a close associate is one that you are in regular contact with over a period of time. Whilst the football club is the mainstay, I would suggest that you would be in close contact with members of the football club on a regular basis and that a member of the public might reasonably think you were prepared to favour the club when discussing a matter that affects them.

 "I have therefore reached the conclusion that you do have a non- registrable interest. As the matter affects Hadleigh Town Football Club more than the majority of people in the area and that a member of the public knowing all the facts would reasonably believe that it would affect your judgement of the wider public interest, you should not have remained in the room whilst matters relating to the Hadleigh Town Football Club were discussed.

Cllr Beggerow also did not respond directly to the recent findings, or whether he would be continuing in his roles as a councillor or on the Hadleigh United committee.

Hadleigh town mayor Gordon McLeod was also contacted for comment regarding the council's position but he failed to respond.

He declined to say following the monitoring officer's decision what actions the town council will be taking in terms of the committee meetings Cllr Beggerow took part in, when he failed to declare an interest.

Mayor McLeod failed to respond

Cllr McLeod also declined to say what action would be taken against the clerk, who is responsible for advising councillors on procedure?

Since taking over as chair of Hadleigh council, Cllr McLeod has overseen a number of controversial decisions, dismissed advice from the monitoring officer that the projects officer Alicja Barnes was acting unlawfully, has been accused of allowing a cover up over prejudicial behaviour by staffing sub committee members, and seeking to double the mayoral allowance so he could buy a new hat and robes.

Also, after dismissing the monitoring officer's advice that the project officer was acting unlawfully in these meetings, and others, he has not yet accepted the council was acting unlawfully or apologise for the comments he made and taken steps against the projects officer.

Adopted LGA Code of Conduct in full