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On the Wight Group leaders were written to over changes to Register of Interests Readers may remember Retired Hack’s article which revealed that the need for councillors to declare their membership of the Freemasons on the Members’ Register of Interests was removed during changes made by a delegated officer last summer. 29/05/13 Unprompted, we received an email from ex-Cllr Eddie Giles on Saturday (18th May), for which we’re grateful, as accuracy is vital to OnTheWight. The email (sent by a council officer last summer) casts doubt over what OnTheWight had been told by Cllr Ian Stephens in relation to consultation over changes to the Register of Interests. It reads Sent: 26 July 2012 14:43Councillors re-approached We’ve put this to both Geoff Lumley and Ian Stephens. With a quick response, we had the following from the Geoff (our additions for clarity within []). We had to wait longer for the response from Ian because as he’s now Leader of the council, his responses have to go through the Comms Dept. Geoff gave us this swift response: I did receive the email, but I couldn’t say at this distance [of time] that I fully registered the specific implications of it in regard to declarations of freemasonry.The response from the council stated “It is important that members declare any information that could cause a conflict of interest or give the impression that a conflict exists at Council meetings. The current Code of Conduct still requires this.Stephens: “I am happy to set the record straight” Within the council’s response, IW Council leader Cllr Ian Stephens said: “Island Independents were elected with the promise in our Framework for Change of operating a more open and transparent council. A robust system whereby the interests of councillors are clearly declared and are publicly available is a key part of that. I therefore welcome the current review.Not discussed in public It remains a fact that the dropping of the requirement to state membership of the Freemasons was not discussed in public or debated in the council Chamber.
Based on the quotes received by the group leaders who responded to OnTheWight, it is clear they were unaware of the extent of the changes and that the changes included dropping the Freemasonry declaration.
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