Graham Brown resigns from East Devon District Council
Graham Brown has resigned his seat representing East Devon’s Feniton and Buckerell Ward with immediate effect following claims he made about the local planning system to undercover Daily Telegraph reporters.
Earlier today the council referred the matter to the police under the Bribery Act 2010 and its own policy on Fraud, Theft and Anti-Corruption, saying that the comments made by Mr Brown warranted independent examination by the police, who may choose to investigate further.
His resignation means there will be a by-election in the Ward, and the council will release more details on the process as soon as they are available.
Mark Williams, Chief Executive of East Devon District Council said:
“Graham Brown has tendered his resignation with immediate effect.
“Although Graham Brown has not been a member of our planning committee, his comments still raised serious issues and we have responded to them quickly, firmly and fairly. Given our earlier referral of the issue to the police I do not wish to comment any further at this stage, other than to reassure the public that we will cooperate fully and openly if the police decide to investigate.
“We continue to carefully assess the situation pending a response from the police, and any possible investigation under the Councillor Code of Conduct is on hold until we have that response.”
In a statement accompanying his resignation former Cllr Brown maintained that he has not broken the law but had ‘misjudged the situation’. His statement read:
“It is with great regret that I have decided today to step down and resign my position as an East Devon District Councillor due to the unbearable media pressure from the Daily Telegraph.
“I wish to announce a full apology to my councillor colleagues across the whole political spectrum at East Devon and to the East Devon District Council officers for my disparaging remarks.
“I would like to add that I stand by the fact that although I thoroughly misjudged the situation, I remain firm in the knowledge that I have not broken the law and will work to clear my name of any wrongdoing.”
The news of Cllr Brown's resignation will be welcomed by some in the ward, as the Chair of local action group 'Fight for Feniton's Future' explained to The Exeter Daily (prior to Mr Brown's resignation): "Feniton is a small rural village in the East Devon Countryside. Under the EDDC draft Local Plan it was allocated 35 houses as its contribution to additional housing in the run up to 2026, and this seems to us fair. The fact that the Local Plan has not been finalised, that EDDC has been found to be persistently failing to meet its appropriate housing land supply, and the implementation of the National Policy Planning Framework on 27 March has made for a perfect storm for Feniton.
"Rather than 35 houses, the community is facing the construction of almost 300 houses on three separate sites in the open countryside. That's an increase in the size of the village of 40%. This is clearly inappropriate and unsustainable. EDDC to date has refused to state what level of development would be 'appropriate' for our community.
"While the community has been against inappropriate development in Feniton, and while the Parish Council has been unanimous in its opposition, the village has been ill served by Cllr Graham Brown, the councillor for Feniton and Buckerell. Cllr Brown has consistently failed to support the community on this front, both in public meetings and at meetings of EDDC.
"In fact Cllr Brown has been openly pro development, and has argued consistently for development in our village. Accordingly Feniton has been fighting not just rapacious developers, but the very councillor who is supposed to reflect our views and fight our corner. It is particularly alarming, as EDDC itself has volunteered, that Feniton seems to have been 'targetted' by developers. It is no doubt coincidence that the village targetted in this way happens to be the village represented by Cllr Brown.
"The right and proper thing to do is for Cllr Brown to resign with immediate effect, and for EDDC to put on hold immediately any applications for mass housing development in Feniton."
The matter has now been handed over to the police.
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