ALL 48 members of the Forest Council will go through training following a recommendation from watchdogs.

Council leader Patrick Molyneux (Con, Woolaston and Hewelsfield) was called before the authority’s standards after he declared that a builder working on his house also had an interest in the district’s Allocations Plan, the blueprint which will set out sites for development.

Cllr Molyneux insisted he had done nothing wrong and the council has made a statement that the matter did not need to be officially ‘declared’.

As a result of his appearance before the standards committee, the watchdog called for all councillors to receive mandatory standards training.

A council spokeswoman said: “We are pleased to confirm that the mandatory standards training for all members requested by the Standards Committee will be carried out throughout December 2016 and January 2017.”

She said all members are required to disclose interests that they may have when discussing matters before the council.

She added: “Recently, there has been a large amount of publicity about the leader’s declaration at full council on September 21, in which he stated that a builder working on his house was associated with a site included in the Allocations Plan. 

“We would like to make it clear that this was not a declarable interest and there was no requirement for the leader to make this statement. 

“However, in the spirit of openness, he made members aware that he had entered into a contract. 

“There have also been questions about why the ‘interest’ was not disclosed at the Cabinet support group meetings which discussed the Allocations Plan. 

“This group is not a decision making body and there is no requirement for any member to declare interests.

In addition, we have seen questions over the validity of the process followed to grant planning permission to the leader. 

“This has been fully investigated and the outcome confirms that there was an error in the process. 

“We would like to confirm that the leader had no influence over the procedure adopted to determine the application and the matter is wholly unrelated to his role in the preparation of the Allocation Plan proposals. 

“While we are satisfied that a genuine error occurred it has been agreed by the standards committee that an independent review should be conducted and this will commence shortly.”