Lord Mayor called to hearing over housing scandal

A HEARING is to be held into the Lord Mayor of Nottingham's involvement in the city's council house scandal – despite a report saying he did not break the code of conduct.

Coun Brian Grocock had lied about his relationship to a family friend who – along with his partner – was later allocated a council house despite not being at the top of the waiting list.

In a report, city council monitoring officer Glen O'Connell told the authority's standards committee he did not believe Mr Grocock's actions in 2005 had broken the councillors' code of conduct.

Committee members had the option of accepting the report's findings, or not accepting them and referring the matter to a hearing. They decided there should be a hearing.

Mr O'Connell's report reveals the couple should probably have waited "years" for a council house in Bestwood, but were offered one after only ten months – and just three days after housing staff were wrongly told one of the couple was Mr Grocock's grandson. The report also shows that:

A housing officer e-mailed Mr Grocock and said the couple were not "realistically" going to get a two or three-bedroom house in Bestwood Park.

The couple were given almost double points, in advance of their baby being born, which made them eligible for a three-bedroom house as no two-beds were available, but this still meant that "realistically they will still have quite a wait". Mr Grocock denies receiving e-mails relating to this.

Director of housing operations Tyron Browne e-mailed the Bestwood area housing office, explaining the applicant was Mr Grocock's grandson and requesting them to "deal with this matter".

He said he had been contacted by Councillor David Trimble on Mr Grocock's behalf. This email was later confirmed by Mr O'Connell as being sent by Mr Browne.

Three days later the couple were offered a house.

Liberal Democrat councillor Tony Sutton said: "This string of events appears to show a manipulation of the system, which nowadays would be regarded as totally unacceptable – and should have been then."

Mr Grocock reported himself to the standards committee, but said he had described the applicant as his grandson "so as to avoid any suggestion that I was not disclosing an interest."

Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/32715/f/503354/s/13b58b59/l/0L0Sthisisnottingham0O0Cnews0CLord0EMayor0Ecalled0Ehearing0Ehousing0Escandal0Carticle0E3380A9450Edetail0Carticle0Bhtml/story01.htm

Environmental sustainability Credit cards Job hunting West Ham United Self-catering Ann Widdecombe