Investigation finds councillor breached code of conduct at planning committee, appeared to have predetermined view

A West Northamptonshire councillor breached the code of conduct by forcefully intervening at a planning committee meeting and appeared to have predetermined his view, an investigation has found.

Investigators from ch&I associates found Phil Bignell, a member of the ruling Conservative group, had been “grandstanding” at the meeting.

They were appointed after the council received a complaint about the councillor’s conduct, and said in their report that Cllr Bignell failed to treat the senior planning officer with respect during the meeting in November 2022 and predetermined his position on an application to build 45 homes in the village of Flore.

It was alleged that Cllr Bignell used his position improperly to disadvantage the applicant by both speaking and voting against the application despite being found predetermined on the balance of probabilities.

Cllr Bignell is not a member or registered substitute member for the Planning Committee but the chair allowed him to act as a substitute as he had received the necessary training in planning through his roles on other committees.

The unnamed senior planning officer told investigators “anyone watching would have formed the view that Councillor Bignell was implying that myself and the planning department had tried to lie to members.

“It was very adversarial and felt like I was in a courtroom, with Councillor Bignell as the prosecutor.”

West Northamptonshire’s unnamed locum solicitor, a former monitoring officer, told investigators Cllr Bignell’s tone and criticism did not sit well with the member/officer protocol and “it would have been far better for the councillor, if he had such concerns to have raised these with officers prior to the public meeting, or even sought an invitation to chair’s briefing rather than stage what became a stand-off between members and planning officers

“That said, the officer report and presentation were deficient and led to much of what followed in the meeting. There would seem therefore to be lessons to be learned on both sides.”

Representatives present from the Planning Advisory Service expressed concern that Cllr Bignell had arrived with a prepared speech which he read out at the outset making it clear that he disagreed with the officer recommendation but then took part “despite having made his position clear before the item was presented”.

They said this had been important as the application was decided by the casting vote of the chair and therefore had Cllr Bignell been prevented from taking part the  decision would have gone the other way.

Investigators “considered that the content of Councillor Bignell’s speech strongly supported the allegation that he attended the committee meeting on 2 November 2022 having already predetermined the matter”.

They added: “While we agree with the locum solicitor’s comment that there are likely lessons to be learned on both sides, based on the evidence we have seen we are of the view that Councillor Bignell was not genuinely seeking to understand the reasons behind the senior planning officer’s recommendations, but was instead grandstanding to those in the public gallery while challenging the officer in a manner that he knew would call his competence into question so as to denigrate his report.”

Cllr Bignell, who denied the allegations, has been contacted for comment.

Mark Smulian