Councillor quits after complaint is upheld

A councillor has resigned after a complaint against her was upheld for using knowledge from her employment to help her parish council.

Former Tarrington parish councillor Linzy Outtrim, who works as a stakeholder manager for Herefordshire Council’s highways contractor Balfour Beatty, was found to have breached the honesty section of council’s code of conduct.

Monitoring officer Claire Ward and an independent person concluded that there had been a breach.

“Councillor Outtrim has acknowledged that in connection with a discussion on garden pots at a meeting in May this year, she used her prior knowledge from her employment to assist the parish council,” the decision notices reads.

“Councillor Outtrim’s declaration of interest form does accurately reflect her employment so she should not have used her employment knowledge to assist the parish council,” the decision notice reads.

“Whilst this is a minor technical breach of the code of conduct, it is a breach of the code.”

The monitoring officer considered the complaint and made their decision on August 6. Councillor Outtrim’s last day in public office was August 8.
Herefordshire Council’s was approached for more clarity on what led to the breach but could not provide any further.

Press officers have forwarded the request for information to their data access officers and it will be dealt with under freedom of information legislation.

The officers will determine whether the requested information can be released to the press.