A LOCAL councillor has been cleared of any intentional wrong-doing at an East Hampshire District Council meeting following a local resident's complaint about his possible planning bias .

Anthony Williams, a Headley parish councillor and vice-chairman of EHDC's north planning committee, was subject to an investigation by the Standards Board in December after Robert Anthony, of Churt, made a complaint against him regarding a planning application.

The plans which were heard at last January's north planning committee were to put up three wire fences on land within Hilland Woods. The application was originally passed, subject to certain stringent conditions which were later dropped.

However, Mr Anthony later accused Mr Williams of having a personal and prejudicial interest in the application.

The allegations heard at the investigation were that: "Mr Williams should have declared an interest because his property was within 100 metres of Hilland Woods and overlooked it.

"Mr Williams should have declared an interest because the value of woodland owned by him could potentially be enhanced by the making of the article four direction (ie preventing any fences to be built on the area without permission) compared to the value of Hilland Woods.

"Mr Williams was involved in the signing of the article four direction on August 6, 2004, (the complainant alleges that the councillor should therefore have declared an interest for the same reasons as above)."

The complainant, Mr Anthony, said: "Mr Williams was involved with an article four restriction on 35 acres of woodlands 250 yards from his home in August 2004 (no fences whatsoever without planning), while at the same time he was negotiating to buy four acres of woodland beside his own home which he thought fit not to have an article four imposed, priced at £100,000.

"A small parcel of adjacent land was bought by a neighbour, who partially cleared it and then put up a 6 ft fence 50 yards from Williams' gate, but he said nothing.

"We went to a planning meeting (EHDC north) in January 2005 to seek permission for three wire fences and Mr Williams requested this important matter be discussed, but did not declare a personal interest. The application was passed but with a number of conditions."

He added: "At the Standards Board investigation, Mr Williams' argument was that other councillors have acted in the same way. This is the vice-chairman of planning and he says he doesn't know the rules."

The Standards Board found that although Mr Williams should have declared a personal interest, it was not a prejudicial one which would have excluded him from the meeting.

It added: "The personal interest arises from Mr Williams being a member of Headley Parish Council and having been consulted and having expressed an opinion on the matter in question.

"In failing to declare an interest on January 20, 2005, Mr Williams failed to comply with East Hampshire District Council's code of conduct.

"We accept that Mr Williams was not fully aware of the need to declare an interest in these circumstances and consider that he is most unlikely to repeat this error. We, therefore, decided that the most appropriate sanction in this case is for us to take no further action."

Mr Williams accepted that he had unwittingly breached the rules but maintained that it was only on a technicality and that other councillors were doing the same until a directive from the EHDC legal department had been sent to them.

"All parish and town councillors were emailed in June 2005 by Michael Lawther, who said that they had to state at planning meetings whether they may have a personal interest in a planning application.

"Before that time, we were unaware that such a declaration had to be made. In my opinion it is a technicality as I was not aware of it at the time.

"A number of accusations were made, but I accept that I was technically incorrect in not declaring an interest," Mr Williams commented.

He added: "The Standards Board in Britain has been overwhelmed by these sorts of complaints and has to deal with them quite often, but all complaints must be investigated properly. There is now a mechanism in place and people can take advantage of that.

"If you are in public office you have to accept that people will complain about you, but it is unusual that it is dealt with in the public arena. It is a facility that the Standards Board has put into place and I accept it because it goes with the job."

Michael Lawther, head of EHDC's legal services supported Mr Williams' belief that he had only breached the code of conduct on a technicality due to "a change in approach" to planning applications.

He added: "It was not a significant breach, although it was a breach of code and we had no choice but to investigate it fully on the advice of the British Standards Board.

"The process is slightly cumbersome and the government is considering some amendments to how such complaints are dealt with."