Councillor Greg Stone to be cleared of any wrongdoing

May 29 2009 by Adam Jupp, The Journal

A POLITICIAN being investigated over claims he profiled the likely voting patterns of a planning committee is set to be cleared of any wrongdoing.

Coun Greg Stone was accused of producing papers giving "pen portraits" of the members of Newcastle City Council’s development control committee.

The document was intended for clients of firm Indigo Public Affairs, for whom Coun Stone works as a consultant, in order to help them get planning permission for a student housing scheme in the Shieldfield area of the city.

The senior Liberal Democrat is a former executive member for development and regeneration, but stepped down from that role after starting work for Indigo, at which point he was warned by party colleagues he must have nothing to do with Newcastle planning applications to avoid any conflict of interest.

But it later emerged Indigo had compiled the document for building firm Metnor, which gave detailed predictions of how all 16 members of the committee were likely to vote.

That led to a complaint being made to the council’s then acting chief executive Barry Rowland, who ordered an investigation into the matter.

And in a report set to go before the authority’s standards sub-committee today, (Friday) deputy monitoring officer Stuart Ovens, who carried out the probe, reveals his findings.

The report reveals that throughout the investigation Coun Stone maintained he had no involvement in producing the document , and while he was involved on Indigo’s behalf with projects in Durham and North Yorkshire and other areas, had nothing to do with Newcastle projects.

It states the man responsible for the Shieldfield development was Coun Stone’s line manager Matt Harmer, who lives and works in London. Statements were obtained from him, confirming he was the one who compiled the paperwork, based on press cuttings, local party literature, and "information obtained from local contacts in the political world".

Coun Stone told Mr Ovens he was aware the document had been produced, but that it was not unusual practice and he had nothing to do with it.

But the report says he conceded he may have "inadvertently" influenced some of the material.