Winchester council leader cleared over declaration allegation (From Hampshire Chronicle)
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Winchester council leader cleared over declaration allegation
11:46am Thursday 9th February 2012 in News
Winchester council leader cleared over declaration allegation
WINCHESTER civic chief George Beckett has been cleared of breaking the code of conduct over his involvement with a controversial housing issue.
Keith Story, an environmental campaigner and a fellow Conservative, formally complained about the council leader.
He alleged that Cllr Beckett should have declared a personal and prejudicial interest over the 2,000-home Barton Farm scheme, because he runs a garden centre in Compton and thus would gain from extra customers.
But the standards sub-committee, meeting in private last week, said there were no grounds for the complaint.
Cllr Beckett said: “It is unfortunate that the standards committee was troubled with a complaint that so obviously had no foundation."
For full story, see this week's Hampshire Chronicle, out today, Thursday.
