A SENIOR North Yorkshire councillor has been spared the ultimate penalty for breaching the members' code of conduct.

Carl Les, who could have been suspended for up to three months at a hearing at County Hall, has instead been censured and ordered to undertake further training on the code adopted by his authority two years ago.

A standards committee panel decided that the Conservative councillor committed a technical breach of the code rather than one of intent when he addressed the Richmondshire area committee of the county council in connection with revived proposals for an A1 motorway between Dishforth and Barton.

Coun Bill Hoult, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats at County Hall, complained to the Standards Board for England that Coun Les, as owner of a business which depended on A1 traffic, failed to declare a personal and prejudicial interest in the matter and did not withdraw from the meeting.

A Standards Board investigation found that Coun Les, a director of Motel Leeming, declared a personal interest but considered that, because of his business connection, the public perception could be that he had a prejudicial one.

He breached the code of conduct by remaining in the room and, in speaking, seeking improperly to influence the decision of the meeting.

The Standards Board concluded that, because Coun Les believed he was acting in the public interest and there was no evidence that he would benefit personally from the decision of the area committee, his actions were insufficiently serious to justify the sanctions which could be imposed.

The board said the matter should be resolved locally, and on Monday its findings were confirmed at a four-hour meeting of the standards committee panel.

James Daglish, independent chairman of the panel, told Coun Les that although he had received training in the code of conduct, he did not take advice from the monitoring officer before speaking at the area committee and relied on his own incorrect interpretation of the code.

Announcing the censure, Mr Daglish said Coun Les should apologise for the breach to the chairman of the committee and should undergo more training on prejudicial interests covered by the code.

Mr Daglish said the panel was also recommending the standards committee to review levels of training for all councillors, particularly on declarations of interest.

Following Coun Les' address to the Richmondshire area committee in October 2002, members agreed the executive should be asked to seek "robust" consultations with communities along the A1 route before the Highways Agency went ahead with the revived upgrade.

But Chris Boothman, representing the Standards Board, told the panel that Coun Les should have asked another member to raise the issue, or he could have written to the council as an interested party.

He added: "What the code does not allow him to do is to

l Continues on page 3