AUDITORS and the council s standards committee have slammed a councillor for failing to file an important form after nearly nine months of requests. Of two councillors who had not returned their related party transaction forms by the deadline after April

AUDITORS and the council's standards committee have slammed a councillor for failing to file an important form after nearly nine months of requests.

Of two councillors who had not returned their related party transaction forms by the deadline after April last year, Cllr Ronald Doncaster's form has still not been seen by council auditors.

Four reminders were sent to him. When the council received no response, he was asked to attend the standards committee meeting on Thursday, but he failed to show up.

Monitoring officer, Nina Clark, said: "We have asked him to explain why he had not filed in the form. I have raised the matter a number of times with Cllr Bailey [leader of the BNP group, of which Cllr Doncaster is a member].

"He has not been able to contact Cllr Doncaster."

Chair of the meeting, Fiona Fairweather, said it could be a breach of the councillors' standards to not comply with the request.

Initial letters went out to all councillors in April, asking them to file the forms, which are needed for the annual Statement of Accounts.

Eighteen councillors from across all parties did not complete the forms on time, but almost all filed them after further requests.

The POST could not reach Cllr Doncaster but Cllr Bob Bailey, said: "I don't blame him for not filling in the form. We are not there to fill in forms and waste our time with bureaucracy."

He explained: "The forms are basically supposed to make people know that we are not committing any wrong deeds."

A council spokesperson said: "The 'declare related party transactions' form which all members are required to sign, asks if a member has outside business interests or if a family member may benefit from council transactions that the member may be in a position to influence.