Dragon Interview: Patrick Oven, GGG Leader at GBC

Published on: 28 Oct, 2024
Updated on: 29 Oct, 2024

This is the fourth in a series of interviews with, it is hoped, all the party leaders at Guildford Borough Council.

In this interview the man in the spotlight is Patrick Oven, leader of the Guildford Greenbelt Group. His group comprises three councillors, a slight improvement from the pre-2023 position of just two members.

In a 30-minute interview, full of interesting views and observations from the GGG perspective, Patrick answers the question is the protection of the green belt a lost cause and what is “grey belt”, his assessment of the current GBC administration, and its finances, openness and his view, as a former criminal barrister of the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) investigation?

Responses to Dragon Interview: Patrick Oven, GGG Leader at GBC

David Roberts Reply

October 28, 2024 at 5:56 pm

A very assured performance by the GGG Leader.

I am not surprised that both interviewer and interviewee were uncertain about Guildford Borough Council’s attachment to the Nolan Principles on Integrity in Public Life, which (though non-statutory) are mandatory for all public servants, both elected and non-elected.

As I have repeatedly noted since the Monika Juneja scandal in 2015, elected councillors and salaried officers are required in their respective Codes of Conduct to sign up to only a selective paraphrase of the Principles, focusing on fraud, that does not protect the public from wider corruption or criminal wrongdoing.

This is really very, very easy to correct. But neither the council leader nor the chief executive seem interested.