Councillor resigns over plans complaint (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Councillor resigns over plans complaint

9:00am Saturday 28th January 2012 in News By Telegraph & Argus

An Ilkley parish councillor suspended for not declaring an interest during a planning debate has resigned.

Councillor Andrew McKie handed in his resignation to Ilkley Parish Council this week, branding the complaints procedure “farcical”.

The Ben Rhydding ward representative, who was chairman of the parish council’s plans committee, said he no longer felt he could continue to contribute to the role.

A complaint was made by a member of the public that Mr McKie, who lives on Wheatley Lane, Ben Rhydding, did not declare he lived a few hundred yards from the proposed site for the now-abandoned Ilkley Grammar School rebuild when he took part in a debate on the plan.

A Bradford Council determination sub-committee imposed the three-month suspension on Mr McKie until such time as he attended “correctional thinking”.