Councillor blamed Cornwall Council for damaging reputation

Cllr Luke Rogers – Liberal Democrat member for St Ives East, Lelant and Carbis Bay – was criticised at a meeting of the local authority’s west sub-area planning committee last month.

He had brought an application for nine new homes in Carbis Bay for consideration by the committee rather than planning officers due to a number of public concerns, but was not present at the meeting to speak for the five minutes allotted to local members and was not available to answer questions.

Comments have been made at a number of recent planning meetings criticising local members who call applications to committee but then don’t appear in person or online to explain their reasons why.

West sub-area planning committee chair Cllr Brian Clemens – who says he will make a statement at the next meeting of the committee – says there was “confusion” and although there was an internal IT error, Cllr Rogers had received other correspondence featuring the correct date and time.

Cllr Clemens said during July’s meeting that no apology had been sent for Cllr Rogers’ absence. “It is unacceptable in my opinion if somebody brings something to committee and doesn’t speak. It doesn’t help the residents and it doesn’t help this committee,” added Cllr Clemens.

Cllr Mike Thomas added: “The issues Cllr Rogers has raised are very interesting – he’s written a good item for us to read and I have plenty of questions that I wanted to put to him. I feel cheated that I can’t have that opportunity.”

However, an angry Cllr Rogers has now written to the committee and council officers explaining the reason why he wasn’t at the meeting – blaming the committee’s admin team for giving him the wrong date. He is demanding a public apology.

His letter states: “During the meeting, members publicly criticised my absence, suggesting that I had failed in my responsibilities after requesting that the application be determined by committee rather than under delegated powers.

“These comments were made in a public forum and have since been reported in the local media, causing unnecessary damage to my reputation and creating the false impression that I chose not to attend a meeting that I had specifically requested. That impression is entirely incorrect.”

He added: “The sole reason I was absent was because I was provided with the incorrect meeting date by the committee administration. The invitation issued by the committee admin contained the wrong date, which I entered into my diary automatically. I therefore believed the meeting was taking place the following day. My absence was the direct result of an administrative error by Cornwall Council, not any failure or lack of commitment on my part.

“This makes the public criticism I received particularly unacceptable. Before members publicly questioned my conduct, no effort appears to have been made to establish why I was absent. Had a simple enquiry been made, the committee would have discovered that the fault lay within its own administrative processes.

“More importantly, this error did not simply affect me personally. It deprived the residents of Carbis Bay of the representation they were entitled to expect from their elected member. I requested committee determination because of the significant level of public concern and because I believed the planning issues deserved proper public debate.

“Through no fault of my own, I was prevented from representing those residents because of an administrative mistake made by the authority itself.”

Adding that the comments made during the meeting compounded “reputational damage”, Cllr Rogers has demanded an “unequivocal apology” together with confirmation that steps will be taken to ensure that “similar administrative failures do not occur again”.

Committee chair Cllr Clemens explained to us that there had indeed been “confusion” caused by an internal IT error which meant the wrong date appeared on Cllr Rogers’ Outlook calendar. However, he said Cllr Rogers had also received three correspondences containing the correct date and time of the meeting.

He added that a planning meeting could not have been held on the incorrect date as it was the same day as a full council meeting when no other public meetings are held. Cllr Clemens said he would be making a statement at the start of the next west sub-area committee meeting.

Cllr Rogers responded: “I understand that mistakes happen and I appreciate that. What I found frustrating was how quickly some councillors were prepared to criticise publicly rather than simply picking up the phone and asking where I was.

“In this case, although other correspondence may have referred to a different date, I relied on the official Cornwall Council diary entry which showed the meeting on the Tuesday. I’ve always trusted the council’s diary system and have never had any reason to question it before, so it didn’t occur to me to double-check it against other correspondence.

“As I’m not a member of the committee and very rarely call applications to committee, I also wasn’t aware that it only ever meets on a Monday. I simply trusted the information that had been entered into the council’s own system.”