Revealed: rapped councillor's planning row letter (From Bucks Free Press)

Revealed: rapped councillor's planning row letter

1:41pm Friday 27th June 2008 in

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A COUNCILLOR disqualified for trying to influence an associate's planning application told a planning boss he was doing so to avoid the "usual cohorts of barristers, solicitors and planners", the Marlow Free Press can reveal.

The plea was in a letter which sparked a standards probe that last week saw Marlow town councillor Tony Dunn disqualified for a year.

The Adjudication Panel for England found that he "used his position as a councillor to confer or secure an advantage" for Marlow businessman Brian Folley over two planning applications.

But an angry Mr Dunn this week hit back and said he intervened on one of the plans to save the council from a major and potentially costly legal battle with Mr Folley.

Yet he admitted he "stepped over the line" by writing the letters.

The September 2007 application was an attempt to overcome a council order to stop construction of a house being built by Mr Folley, who employed Mr Dunn as secretary of two of his companies.

Mr Dunn wrote to councillors set to decide the application because officers recommended it be refused - meaning legal action by Mr Folley would continue.

The standards panel said by writing Mr Dunn "totally and, arguably wilfully, ignored" the code of conduct at Wycombe District Council, of which he was then a member.

In a letter to Councillor Hugh McCarthy, who was responsible for planning on the council, Mr Dunn said: "There is already a public inquiry scheduled for the enforcement notices with the usual cohorts of barristers, solicitors and planners involved.

"This all costs money and we will have to go through this again if the council development control committee refuses the application."

It went on: "It could of course be a whole lot worse if Mr Folley wants, and gets, his costs from us as well, which is certainly a strong possibility."

Mr Dunn, of Terrington Hill, this week told the Marlow Free Press he wrote the letters as Mr Folley's ward councillor and not a business associate.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Dunn said: "My genuine feeling was that Brian Folley had been very badly dealt with and that I had to stand up for him as his ward councillor."

A successful apppeal would have meant "the efficiency of the planning department being held up to public ridicule".

Mr Dunn, who was a member for Marlow North and West, said: "I was trying to protect Wycombe District Council from a very big financial award against them."

Yet he said: "I stepped over the line I know in writing the letter but I was trying to get people to focus."

Mr Folley said: "Tony Dunn was simply a ward councillor as far as I'm concerned."

He said: "I see him once a year at company meetings.

"He's always discharged his duties quite diligently and properly."

Cllr Anthony Dunn, who represents Kilburn on Brent Council, has asked us to point out that this story does not refer to him.