I WAS very lucky to have a meeting with the monitoring officer for WDDC last week, the in-house lawyer responsible for complaints about councillors.

I learned that under new rules, West Dorset councillors can no longer be suspended from duty, but may however be asked to apologise.

This includes such contraventions as, ‘Members should never improperly confer an advantage or disadvantage to any person’, etc.

Although both the offence and the complaint from me came before the change on July 5, he had decided to use the new rules anyway.

He read from a print-out of the new codes of conduct. On my third request to see the document he reluctantly handed it to me. I felt very grateful.

I was pleased to find a gem in the last paragraph of the new codes which clarifies all the public need to know about the council’s strategy of openness.

Under the heading ‘Sensitive Interests’, it reads: “The elements of the register of interests that are in the public domain must not include details of the interest but will instead refer to the details being withheld and if there is a need to disclose the interest at a meeting, the disclosure is limited to a statement that the member has a disclosable pecuniary interest, but without further details being given.”

ANDREW LEPPARD Bridport