Councillors of all political affiliation at Weymouth and Portland Borough Council have made some pretty stupid decisions – notably the Weymouth Peninsula fiasco – but others too. 

It struck me that there must be some financial jiggery pokery going on that we the public don’t know that would have amounted to reason behind such routine unreason. The other night I openly challenged one Tory member, James Farquharson, currently representing Preston, to explain his business interests. He called my bluff and since I have time on my hands today, I set myself the task of looking at the declarations of members’ interests for all councillors at the soon to be defunct WPB Council. One of his mates trolled me saying that this would be biased – his mistake and one that would save me around two hours as thanks to the hostility from the troll, I chose only  to look at Tory members. 

You can too – it is at this page. If you want to find out how many members of the Labour Party are in the PLO or Nazi Party in a the current hunt for antisemites then go ahead and write something up like this!

What I found

Three of the dodgiest councillors actually represent Preston! Farquharson is the marketing manager of the well connected media consultancy Aylesworth Fleming Ltd, whose clients include the housing development company Bloor Homes. He also gives a bad name to sailing as he, unlike fellow Weymouth Sailing Club member and Preston Councillor Ian Bruce has declared his membership there. I can’t unfortunately say any more here – who knows who the man hangs out with when he markets or sails? I should know – I hang out with billion dollar cannabis companies and that doesn’t make me dodgy. 

I can say that Bloor has recently built a 630 home development in Wimborne and has interests in Studland too. They seem to like Dorset and aren’t short of influence, if influence comes with money. They didn’t pay Mr F a penny and nor has he had any other formal relationship with them. 

Ian Bruce used to be MP round these parts and has amassed a decent sized property portfolio over the years. Ian Bruce Associates is a landlord company so his accountant will do legal things to minimise his taxes – as mine will too. Does that make him dodgy? Note to self: ask his tenants about how good a landlord he is, as I did Dave Wells’ tenants for the Sunday Express a few years back. The addresses are listed (though not here in this article – I’m not that cruel). The short answer is I don’t know. 

I have to say that I am surprised at just how benign and boring many of the Tory councillors are according to the register of members interests. Classic, grey haired people who supplement their pensions with some work for the community in their elected roles. On the surface the register doesn’t explain much – other than possible senility – behind many of the decisions that flew in the face of public opinion on a routine basis. 

Really, if he was still a councillor I would have loved to see a very wealthy Lib Dem’s entry on the list. I knew him personally and found him one of the most despicable people I have ever known. There’s also a former Tory councillor out there who owns far too much of Portland…

Lobbying

I have to say I’m being a bit sloppy here and will recycle some recent journalism I have done rather than get a hot new interview for this piece. I had a nice budget for that and honestly am a bit squeezed for time just now – work beckons tomorrow!

Lobbying is about getting access to politicians. Ian Bruce would know about that in Parliament – just where I focused the source article on gambling companies lobbying MPs. I interviewed Alexandra Runswick of Unlock Democracy who told me, “Often you don’t want to put something on the public record, what you want to be doing is having a chat with your colleagues in the tearooms because lobbying works best when you can’t see it. It’s all about relationships.”

In giving days out at the races, so gambling companies got that vital private time with their target MPs who included my least favourite MP Tom Watson. Runswick said, “There is an assumption that the company will get something out of it but it is never explicit. I’m sure if you went to an MP who had been given free tickets to the races they would say there was no obligation.”

One of the sections that was always interesting was “Bodies whose principal purposes include the influence of public opinion or policy” and the final section, “Declaration of Gifts and Hospitality”. These would point to formal lobbying on the part of interests toward the councillors. Other than the South Dorset Conservative Association, there was hardly anything barring the odd pressure group that was irrelevant to this enquiry. 

Corruption or senility? 

As with any investigation you go in full of balls and bluster, saying you’re going to ‘do over’ whomever you target. I can’t say I succeeded here. Runswick pointed to political party donations – another article there for me – and said, “There is an influence of money on UK politics but it is very difficult to prove that it is corruption as it is difficult to prove a direct relationship between a donation to a political party for example and a policy outcome. Corruption tends to be thought of bribing a police officer if you get stopped. We don’t routinely have that kind of corruption in the UK but we have corruption in the sense that money can buy you access and influence”.

My next piece will be to look at party funding locally. I know some major parties locally would sell their grandmothers for a decent donation while others are fantastically funded. Did I get even a whiff of a gnat’s fart of corruption here in South Dorset from the register of members interests? Sadly no. In that case the decisions the council made are probably down to senility!

Register of Conservative Councillors interests

As promised, here’s my copy of Conservative Party WPBC councillors interests. While a lot more is in the public domain I didn’t list the addresses of where they own property – a safety measure for them there. Read on!

James Farquharson, Con, Preston

Marketing Manager, Aylesworth Fleming Ltd, and Proprietor of Jurassic Spring Ltd. Partner is a private and NHS physiotherapist. 

Owns own property 

Member of Weymouth Sailing Club and Weymouth Rowing Club

Tony Ferrari, Con, Wey Valley

Owns own house. 

Not otherwise employed

Member of Sutton Poyntz Neighbourhood Plan Committee and Nottington Neighbourhood Plan Committee. 

Member of 2 charities: Sutton Poyntz Society and Friends of Lodmoor. 

John Ellis, Con, Upwey & Broadwey

Owns own house

Not otherwise employed

Reserve Member, Dorset  Waste Partnership Joint Committee 

Trustee of One Voice Weymouth Choir

Management Committee, Big 4 Littlemoor

Member of Conservative Councillors Association

Member of South Dorset Conservative Association

Treasurer of Broadwey Division of South Dorset Conservative Association

Francis Drake, Con, Melcombe Regis

Owner of Antonios Cafe on St Mary’s Street along with spouse. 

Owns the building

Director of Weymouth BID

Jeff Cant, Con, Wyke Regis

He and spouse are freelance public sector consultants

Owns 2 properties

Member of Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA)

Mike Byatt, Con, Westham East

Not otherwise employed

Owns one house

Exercises public functions at Weymouth College

Member of the GMB

Ian Bruce, Con, Preston

He and spouse are private landlords and company directors

Received expenses from South Dorset Conservative Association as did wife

Has a contract from Ian Bruce Associates Ltd as does wife. 

Jointly owns 9 properties with wife

Member of Sutton Poyntz Society

Member of Preston Branch, South Dorset Conservative Association

Member of National Landlords Association and Weymouth Residential Landlords Association

Hazel Bruce, Con, Preston

Spouse of Ian Bruce. 

With Ian, private landlords and company directors 

Justice of the Peace 

Member of Girl Guiding UK (Trefoil Guild)

Member of Dorset Keep Fit Association

9 properties

Member of Preston Branch, South Dorset Conservative Association

Member of National Landlords Association and Weymouth Residential Landlords Association

Magistrates Association

Kevin Brookes, Con, Upwey and Broadwey

Not otherwise employed. Spouse is an editor

Owns own home

Member of Dorset Waste Partnership

Member of South West Strategic Planning Forum

Trustee of the JRE and Gladys Banks housing charity

Member of Unite the Union 

Katharine Garcia, Con, Tophill East

Partner of Waurfield And Associates Ltd with spouse, who’s a trainer at BUPA

Owns one property 

Company Secretary of Portland Community Land Trust 

Richard Kosior, Con, Weymouth West

Instructor and sole director of Alacrity Aviation Ltd

Owns own home 

Pamela Nixon, Con, Wey Valley

Not otherwise employed

Owns own home

Member of William Gould Charity

Member of Sanderson Wells Confidential Assistance Fund

On the Good Citizens Panel

Trustee of Weymouth & Portland CAB

Member of Conservative Councillors Association

Unison member 

Richard Nickinson, Con, Weymouth West

Not otherwise employed. Spouse is a Marriage Registrar

Received expenses from South Dorset Conservative Association

Jointly owns 2 properties with spouse

Cites South Dorset Conservative Association as one that influences public opinion or policy 

Jason Osborne, Con, Melcombe Regis

Company Director of the Leam Hotel and Duke of Cornwall jointly with spouse

Owns no property 

Member Joint Advisory and Accounts Committee

WPBC Audit Committee

WPBC Scrutiny and Performance Committee 

Cathy Page-Nash, Con, Radipole

Employed as a casual teacher for EFL at Europartner

Owns own home

Member of South Dorset Conservative Association

Deputy Mayor Alison Reed, Con, Weymouth East

NHS worker and spouse, Manager of BID

Doesn’t own own home

Member, Conservative Councillors Association

Trustee of the JRE and Gladys Banks housing charity

Unison Member

Rich Shrubb

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