The charmed lives of Cllr Ray Field & Cllr Clive Goddard
shepwayvox
Have Cllr Ray Field (Ind – Harbour Ward) and Cllr Clive Goddard (Con – Wallend & Denge Marsh) broken the Council’s Code of Conduct by knowingly or recklessly providing false or misleading information to the Council’s Monitoring Officer – Amandeep Khroud?
The Code is based on the Seven Principles of Public Life under section 28(1) of the Localism Act 2011.
The Seven Principles are:
Selflessness
Integrity
Objectivity
Accountability
Openness
Honesty
Leadership
Under 4.1 of the Code of Conduct Registering a disclosable pecuniary interest it states:
In addition, a Member must, before the end of 28 days beginning with the day that he/she becomes aware of any new Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or change to any interest already registered, register details of that new interest or change, by providing written notification to the Monitoring Officer.
On or around the 12th Feb 2020, Cllr Clive Goddard received a letter from Kent Police advising him in the strongest of terms that he is NOT entitled to refer to 24 Vinelands, Lydd as his “home address“.
Cllr Goddard was given a reasonable amount of time to change his address with the Council. A year on almost and Cllr Goddard has failed to notify the Monitoring Officer of the fact he can no longer call 24 Vinelands, Lydd, his home.
On Dec 17th, Folkestone & Hythe District was in Tier 4 restrictions. These began on the 2 December 2020.
On the 17th Dec Cllr Goddard, as a Lydd Town Cllr, rather than a District Cllr, drove around Lydd to judge the Christmas Lights competition. He was accompanied by Lydd Town Council Clerk, Angela Alexander (pictured). Cllr Goddard was driving the Town Clerk’s car.
It is known Mrs Alexander lives in Camber which from 2 December 2020 , was under Tier 2 restrictions at the time. Camber sits in the Rother District Council area. We understand she claimed £17 in expenses for judging the Christmas Lights Competition.
Cllr Goddard continues to inform the Council’s monitoring officer he lives at 24 Vinelands Lydd, and this is what is stated on his Register of Interests. If this be true, then why was he mixing with a person – the Lydd Town Clerk, Angela Alexander – when Tier 4 restriction would have prevented the two meeting up?
This leads to three possibilities:
1 Cllr Goddard is living at 24 Vinelands Lydd (which we know he is NOT as Kent Police told him to change his address)
2 He is living with the Town Clerk, Angela Alexander, so both were in a Tier 2 area and travelled to a Tier 4 area.
3, He is not living with Angela Alexander and is living in Hastings, as many Lydd residents claim – so again both were in a Tier 2 district.
The only real possibility here is both Cllr Goddard and Lydd Town Clerk, Angela Alexander were both living in a Tier 2 district at the time of judging the Lydd Christmas Lights competition.
This would mean that Cllr Goddard could not possibly be living at 24 Vinelands, Lydd and has failed to notify the monitoring officer of his change of address, it would appear.
Cllr Goddard is failing to abide by the 7 principles of public life and the FHDC Code of Conduct. He appears to lead a charmed life and be allowed to get away with it both by Kent Police and FHDCs monitoring officer.
Moving on, we have been made aware Cllr Ray Field has not lived at 65 Radnor Cliff Road, the address he gives on his Register of Interests, for around 12 months. He has had his mail re-directed to a new address, outside the district, according to a variety of sources.
Cllr Field, like Cllr Goddard appears to lead a charmed life, since he has:
Threatened a member of the public with violence, while a Cllr.
Again, the monitoring officer has appeared to look the other way with some of these violations of the Cllrs code of conduct.
Both Cllrs are failing to abide by the 7 principles of public life and inform the monitoring officer of their change of circumstances. However, we strongly suspect the monitoring officer of the Council – Amandeep Khroud – will NOT take any action against either of them, as this might upset the delicately balanced make up of the Council, leading potentially to Cllr Monk’s conservative coalition to lose control of the Council.
So, with the information before you, we’ll leave you to decide if the monitoring officer should take action.
Both Cllrs were given the opportunity to respond but a answer there came none.
