DUP councillor Linda Clarke - the wife of MLA Trevor Clarke - suspended for not declaring interest
A DUP councillor and wife of an MLA has been suspended from her council post for three months for failing to declare an interest in planning matters.
Linda Clarke, wife of South Antrim MLA Trevor Clarke, represents the Dunsilly district of Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council.
Her suspension followed an adjudication hearing today of the Northern Ireland Local Government Commissioner for Standards.
The body issued a statement afterwards, saying that adjudication commissioner Ian Gordon had found alderman Clarke had breached the Code of Conduct for Councillors by being present during planning committee discussions of two planning applications where representations were made by her husband.
“Alderman Clarke did not declare an interest in either matter, did not leave the meeting, and participated in the voting,” said the statement.
"Her husband, the MLA Trevor Clarke, was acting on behalf of the agent in one application and representing the applicant in the other.
"The commissioner ruled that the alderman therefore had a significant private or personal non-pecuniary interest in the planning matters discussed, both from both her marriage to the MLA and her position as his employee.
"The commissioner noted that despite the council lawyer providing her with guidance on the relevant provisions of the code, she chose to remain in the meeting.”
The investigation by the Northern Ireland Local Government Commissioner for Standards had been going on since 2019.
Its statement quoted Mr Gordon as saying: “It would appear that the councillor did not understand the implication of perception, by a member of the public, of influence and prejudice arising if she failed to declare her interest and leave the committee room where an application involved representations by her MLA spouse and her employer.”
The parts of the code she was judged to have breached were paragraphs 4.3, 6.3, and 6.4.
The suspension was deemed “necessary in order to discourage similar conduct by other councillors, and to uphold public confidence in the standards regime”.