Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests, Other Registerable Interests of Non-Registerable Interests, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

The Monitoring Officer read out the contents of an email that she had previously sent to those Tendring District Councillors who were also serving Essex County Councillors.

“I am writing to you all following a few requests for advice on the position of declaration of interests in relation to the Devolution and LGR Report on the Council agenda tomorrow evening.  I have not checked if you attended the meeting of ECC on 10^th January, if you did, how you voted and if you are attending tomorrow, I just wanted to ensure you all had the same advice.

When the matter was before ECC, you were debating and voting on an item before the County Council on whether to submit the expression of interest as requested, for Upper Tier authorities to respond to, through the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) White Paper on English Devolution published on 16^th December 2024.

The title of the ECC Report was “Devolution, Local Government Reorganisation and Request for Postponement of 2025 Ordinary Elections” printed recommendations within the report are set out below and are important for the purposes of this advice:

2.1 Council endorses the proposal by the Leader of the Council to submit a letter to government which:

A.  Requests that Essex County Council, along with Southend-on-Sea City Council and Thurrock Council (‘the Partners’) be part of the government’s Devolution Priority Programme.

B.  Sets out the Council’s commitment to work with the Partners and with central government and the borough, city and district councils to seek to deliver a mayoral combined county authority with a view to holding a mayoral election in May 2026.

C.  Sets out the Council’s commitment, working with the Partners, to develop a proposal for local government reorganisation for submission to government as an interim proposal in March 2025 and a full proposal in Autumn 2025.

D.  Requests the government to postpone the ordinary elections to Essex County Council due to be held on 1 May 2025, initially by 12 months to May 2026 to enable the Council to focus on developing proposals for devolution and local government reorganisation as part of the Government’s Devolution Priority Programme.

2.2  Council requests that it is consulted on any proposals to be submitted by the Council for a mayoral county combined authority or for reorganisation of local government.

Being an ECC Member is regarded as an Other Registerable Interest (ORI), as defined in Table 2 (c) (i) and (iii).  Where a matter either ‘directly relates’ or ‘affects’ the financial interest or wellbeing of your ORI, you must declare it and whether you participate or not depends upon the circumstances.  There is obviously a clear link to the Report on TDC’s agenda and it specifically references the outcome of the meeting held on 10^th January 2025.

The outcome of the debate on the report tomorrow could directly relate or affect the financial interest or well-being of ECC in relation to partnership working amongst the Councils (as set out in 2.1 B&C above) therefore for the avoidance of doubt, I will read out at the Declarations of Interest section of the agenda tomorrow that as MO, I have decided to grant you all a dispensation to remain, speak, and vote on the item in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct and applying the principles of Section 33 (c) of the Localism Act 2011 in that it is considered granting the dispensation is in the interests of persons living in the authority’s area.

The matter before TDC tomorrow is responding to the outcome of the ECC decision, and as District Councillors, you have the right and would be expected to represent the District Council and its residents, businesses and community in the position local government and this Council finds itself in, following central government policy and the decisions of the County and two Unitaries within Greater Essex.”