Ex-planning committee chair resigns as councillor after hospitality probe

The former chair of Westminster City Council’s planning sub-committee has resigned as a councillor after a probe into his acceptance of hospitality.

An inquiry found Robert Davis registered gifts and hospitality and their acceptance was not unlawful but “it also does not rule out a conclusion that he has placed himself in a position where people might seek to influence him in the performance of his duties”.

The investigation report concluded: “By accepting the large scale of gifts and hospitality Cllr Davis has not promoted and supported high standards of conduct through leadership and by example.

“His conduct has attracted media and public attention which has an impact of the council as a whole.”

Mr Davis referred himself to Westminster’s monitoring officer after press articles last spring about his acceptance of 530 cases of gifts and hospitality since 2015.

The report found that in 41 cases where the planning sub-committee overturned officers’ advice and instead approved applications six of the applicants, agents or individuals involved had provided Mr Davis with gifts or hospitality.

Five of these came either before or shortly after the sub-committee granted consent.

The report noted that Westminster’s monitoring officer and other legal colleagues had advised “there is an issue of perception which Cllr Davis needed to be aware of, given that his acceptance of gifts and hospitality was unusually extensive.

“Cllr Davis said that he was fully confident that if there were complaints he would be able to show he had not done anything wrong.”

Westminster’s leader Nickie Aiken said: “I believe Councillor Robert Davis has made the right decision to step down. 

"Our residents rightly expect the highest standards of those in public office. It is clear from the report that Councillor Davis breached the code of conduct. The planning process must be, and be seen to be, impartial.”

Cllr Aiken said that when she became leader last year she had taken action to improve scrutiny of planning decisions “making sure all meetings about planning applications take place in council offices with officers present”.

Labour opposition leader Adam Hug said: “Cllr Davis’ behaviour has dramatically undermined public trust in Westminster Council and it is absolutely right that he has resigned.”

Mr Davis said in a statement quoted in the report that he felt it contained “significant factual and legal errors.

“However, he has now resigned and wishes to draw a line under this matter, so does not intend addressing these errors in detail. Nonetheless, for the record, he would like to state as follows: (1) he does not recall ever being advised by anyone that he was accepting too much hospitality; and (2) he does not believe that he mistakenly failed to declare 85 items – he is confident that he declared these items and assumes this was an administrative error made by the council.”