Questions Raised Over Disclosure of Councillor’s Rental Properties

Concerns were raised at County Hall this week over the handling of the disclosure of an Isle of Wight councillor’s rental properties.

At Wednesday’s full council meeting on 21 January, Independent Socialist councillor Geoff Brodie questioned council leader Phil Jordan about what he described as a lack of consistency in the application of rules around declarations of interest.

The issue relates to Reform UK councillor Caroline Gladwin, a member of the council’s housing committee.

Monitoring officer Christopher Potter has now asked Cllr Gladwin to provide a list of her current rental properties immediately, or by 31 January, so they can be considered for inclusion on the public register of interests.

In an email to councillors, Mr Potter said he did not view rental property interests as sensitive.

This differs from the earlier position taken by interim monitoring officer Francis Fernandes, who said Cllr Gladwin had declared her rental properties privately but they were not published due to concerns over sensitivity.

During the meeting, Cllr Brodie said transparency was essential so residents could see whether councillors had any vested interests in decisions they were involved in.

He said:

“All councillors are legally required to fully declare their interests for publication on the council’s website.

"Islanders have a right to know whether a councillor has a vested interest in decisions they are taking part in.”

Cllr Jordan responded by saying the council was acting in line with advice from the monitoring officer.

“All councillors are required to declare interests in accordance with the council’s code of conduct and statutory requirements,” he said.

“The monitoring officer is responsible for deciding what must be declared and published, and the council will continue to follow that process.”

Cllr Brodie then asked why the same approach had not been taken when Cllr Gladwin was elected last May, saying the issue had been raised previously and supported by 18 other councillors.

In response, Cllr Jordan said the council had followed the monitoring officer’s guidance at the time and would continue to do so going forward.

Cllr Gladwin attended the meeting but did not comment during the debate, as the questions were directed to the council leader.

She has been contacted for a response.