NI Meeting watchdog didn’t request recordsdata on DUP MLA’s planning lobbying enterprise
A Stormont watchdog did not request files on the controversial planning lobbying business of a DUP MLA – although it did ask itself to investigate.
Trevor Clarke had asked the Congregation’s Standards Commissioner to review concerns raised in media reports about his consultancy, which represents applicants in the planning process.
The South Antrim MLA denied that its affiliations with Versatile Consultancy violated the MLA Code of Conduct, which prohibits paid advocacy.
The standard commissioner Dr. Melissa McCullough closed her investigation in May, telling the MLAs that Mr. Clarke’s self-referral had been “included” in her conclusion on a separate complaint.
However, two councils that keep files on Versatile’s building applications told Belfast Live that they had not received any requests from the watchdog to inspect the documents.
TUV leader Jim Allister said it was “bizarre” that local authorities were not contacted.
“This would certainly have been a starting point, but the investigation has been completed without investigating that route,” he added.
“Having referred a number of Sinn Féin MLAs to the Commissioner as a result of Bobby Storey’s funeral and receiving a response that avoided important issues, I am not too surprised, but this whole matter does nothing for the public’s trust the standard commissioner or politics do. ” generally.”
Green Party MLA Rachel Woods said all complaints against any member of the congregation “should be thoroughly investigated”.
She said there was “a lack of public trust in our planning system”.
Dr. McCullough insisted that all legitimate complaints against MLAs be “thoroughly investigated”.
The Northern Irish Assembly Commissioner for Standards Dr. Melissa McCullough
Mr Clarke had been faced with calls to “check his position” after details of his advisory business, which earned him thousands of pounds, became known in 2019.
Versatile had acted as broker for several building applications in the Antrim area.
Council files showed that Mr. Clarke and some of his MLA constituency bureau staff were sending correspondence about the requests to planners.
When a motion was presented to a council planning committee, Mr. Clarke attended and spoke in his favor.
Sir Alistair Graham, the former head of a UK public standards regulator, had said it appeared to be a “major conflict of interest”.
In August 2019, Mr. Clarke wrote to the Office of the Assembly Commissioner of Standards “to call your attention to certain media reports that have challenged my business interests.”
In the Belfast Live letter, he wrote: “I understand that it has been suggested that my role at this company is in some way contrary to the Code of Conduct, which I completely refute.
“However, with great caution, I am telling your office that these allegations are floating around for you to examine the position.”
DUP MLA Trevor Clarke’s letter to the Office of the Standards Commissioner of the Assembly
Around this time, a separate complaint was filed by a voter alleging that Mr Clarke had failed to disclose his stake in Versatile in relation to a specific building application.
In May of this year, the Commissioner wrote to the Assembly’s Standards and Privileges Committee concluding her examination of the voter’s complaint.
She informed the committee that the complaint could be resolved through what is known as a “rectification procedure”, which later resulted in Mr Clarke apologizing in writing.
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On Mr. Clarke’s self-referral, Dr. McCullough added that “this is included in my consideration of this complaint”.
Your two-page letter makes no reference to matters raised in media reports about Mr. Clarke’s representation on behalf of Versatile customers.
Two councilors who keep the planning files for the now discontinued Versatile stated that they had not received a request from the commissioner’s office to examine the documents.
An excerpt from the Watchdog’s letter to the Congregation Standards and Privileges Committee
A spokeswoman for Antrim and Newtownabbey City Councils said: “The council has not received a request from the Assembly Commissioner’s office for copies of the files relating to the building applications.”
A spokeswoman for the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council said, “The Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council have not received a request from the Office of the Assembly Commissioner for Standards for a copy or review of the application form for this case.”
Dr. McCullough was named Assembly’s standard commissioner in September 2020, who had remained vacant for three years during the Stormont collapse following the RHI scandal.
In a statement, she said: “All admissible complaints against MLAs will be thoroughly investigated and all relevant information taken into account.”
