Councillor quits over TV remarks

Cllr Richard Bower has stood down from Arun District Council's local development framework sub-committee which he chaired.

His decision follows a fulsome apology he made to Aldingbourne Parish Council regarding his appearance in BBC One's Inside Out.

He told them: "I deeply regret having taken part in that programme because of the assumptions about my views that have been drawn from the interview as broadcast.

"The general tone and context of the programme as transmitted was not in the spirit that I understood from the BBC producer would be the case. I had made it clear that I would not condone setting one community versus another."

His resignation was revealed to the Observer last week after the agenda for Tuesday'ssub-committee meeting had been printed showing him as its chairman. His place was taken by the former vice-chairman Cllr Mike Barnett.

Cllr Bower (Con, East Preston and Kingston) broke the impartiality rules which govern councillors involved in planning. Their public comments about sites and schemes have to be neutral to avoid prejudicing their formal debate about an application.

But in an episode of the Inside Out broadcast in the autumn, which featured supporters and opponents of the Ford eco-town, he made remarks about a field near Aldingbourne's church being used for housing.

He said a developer was interested in the land and continued: "Well, I think there is a strong likelihood that it will be developed at some point in the future."

His comments provoked a lot of complaints from angry villagers and prompted a large turnout at the latest Aldingbourne Parish Council meeting where his unreserved apology was noted by parish councillors.

Parish council chairman Cllr John Penfold said: "There were a lot of members of the public at the meeting unhappy with what Cllr Bower said.

"It gave everyone the feeling that he was not going to be impartial when it came to decision making in relation to the local development framework."

But he added Cllr Bower had been helpful to the parish councillors when previous planning applications had been discussed.

"None of the parish councillors has any personal grudge against Cllr Bower and we think he was led astray on the programme," he added.

An Arun spokeswoman said: "The local development framework is a complicated process and the council must remain impartial at all times.

"Cllr Bower's decision to stand down as the chairman of the LDF sub-committee is appropriate given the circumstances. But we would like to thank him for the time he has dedicated to the process so far."

Cllr Bower remains in charge of Arun's planning services and as a member of its development control committee which decides individual planning applications.

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