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Encouraging the industry to ban retired councillors from lobbying their former council for six months

The Guardian has today published a story about councillors employed in ‘planning’ companies.

He contacted several of our employees before he published the story, and each of them gave the same quote:

“Thorncliffe expressly prohibits any of its employees from any form of engagement, on behalf of a client, of a local authority area of which they are an elected member.

“I fully comply with my council’s own code of conduct. It is unacceptable for councillors, of any party, to accept any form of payment to lobby their own council. My company seeks to expand good practice by having its own compliance register, and championing within the industry a ban on retired councillors from lobbying their former council for six months after they have left office.”

As a result of the story today, Managing Director Richard Patient said:

“It is unacceptable for councillors to be receiving any form of payment to lobby their own council. Our Triple Lock Code of Conduct expressly forbids it, and all the councillors we employ have to sign and obey our company code, their council’s own code, and the law.

“As a business, we’ve taken steps to put our employees into line with MPs. That’s why we have been encouraging the industry to ban retired councillors from lobbying their former council for six months. It seems the right thing to do.

“I would also quote from a former Communities Secretary of State about this issue: ‘Councillors are not full-time politicians; they can and should have outside jobs and interests’.”

Reader Interactions

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What people say about us…

Smooth operation

Many thanks for last night: a very smooth operation!

Message was very welcome

Was a great result – especially to receive unanimous approval! Many thanks also for you and your team’s work in the run up to the committee. Getting those messages across really helped and was evident by the feedback given by members on both sides of the political spectrum … notably on the successfully engagement with residents and how the scheme responded accordingly. Message was very welcome!

On point

Harry was on point and has been the whole way through. We are all very chuffed. We are already preparing for another rather testing application on another site and you can be certain that we will engage you

Appreciated

Thanks Richard, your help has been much appreciated. Will let you know when the next job comes up!

Big guns!

Thanks for your and the team’s help. It was good to know we had the proverbial big guns in our armoury!

You kept calm

Many thanks for that: your team did very well, and kept a lot calmer than me! Matt was a sensible wise head, as was Alex, but he also made me think succinctly for the questions and how to answer, which is a great skill to try and acquire. Especially for someone as verbose as me!

A unanimous approval

Councillors praised both officers and the developer on their work and engagement.

A unanimous approval 5-0

With your help

Really pleased to hear the news this evening

With your help, we got it through !!!!

Best Regards!

Truly excellent example

Great news that we approved 60 houses on green belt last night.

It was tremendous that the Chair said that this was a “truly excellent example of good consultation…”

Gave me more confidence

Thank you – we were both somewhat surprised given the level of objections but in fact the committee hardly discussed the scheme at all before consenting it.

Thanks to your team for preparing me well for the committee which certainly gave me more confidence.

A big relief

Thank you. A big relief. As I am sure you can appreciate, we are delighted!

Your team did a great job, especially Matt who was integral.

I look forward to catching up soon.

Unanimous

196 flats approved unanimously, thanks to all involved.

Professional and effective

I wanted to thank you and all at Thorncliffe for managing the consultation process so professionally and effectively. This, without doubt, played a crucial role in gaining the approval.

Once again, all our thanks.

Was a good result

Cant remember the last time I got anything through unanimously!

Was a good result, it’s the right scheme for the site and of course we had a great team including yourselves working on it,

First class troops

Richard. Your troops did a first class job as always. Many thanks

Praise for communityUK

Well done for the way you presented tonight’s online consultation. I thought it was an excellent format.

Great result last night

I just wanted to say thank you again for all your help with the great result last night.

You have been tremendous and it is much appreciated.

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