A WEST Fife councillor said a failure to update an entry to his register of interests for Fife Council was an “oversight” following the death of a family member.

A Press reader, who wanted to remain anonymous, alleged a breach of the councillors code of conduct by Dave Coleman, who sits on the council’s standards and audit committee.

They said: "In his register of interests declaration made on November 27, 2020, Cllr Coleman declared remuneration from 'Coleman & Frame Construction - consultancy fees' and a 50 per cent shareholding in the business.

"However, Coleman and Frame was dissolved by Companies House on January 14, 2020 – a full 10 months before Cllr Coleman completed a declaration stating he received remuneration from the company and owned shares in it which wasn't accurate.

"He must have known it was dissolved because he was the secretary and director of the company."

They added: “Cllr Coleman would appear to have breached the councillors code of conduct over the course of at least nine months (perhaps longer) by not updating his register of interests whilst serving as a member of Fife Council’s standards committee which had responsibility for upholding those standards."

Cllr Coleman said that leaving the firm on his register of interests was an “oversight” on his part.

“This is a case of continued disclosure rather than failure to disclose,” he said. “In the period of the company being dissolved, unfortunately my mother in law was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

"She subsequently passed away in the very early phases of the first Covid lockdown, March 2020.

“As you may well imagine this was a stressful time for the family and myself. In November 2020, I created the new business, and updated the register of interest accordingly.”

Fife Conservative leader, and fellow Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay councillor Dave Dempsey, said: “I would just add that the council’s standards and audit committee is misnamed. Some years back, the standards element was removed from councils, by government decree.

“The committee is now essentially an audit or audit and risk body.”

The council’s head of legal and democratic services, Lindsay Thomson, said all councillors must follow a code of conduct which is overseen by the Ethical Standards Commissioner.

“We are not able to take any action on this matter,” she added. “Any complaint would be directed to the Ethical Standards Commissioner.”

Back in July 2019, Fife’s Conservative group defended a decision to appoint Cllr Coleman onto the standards and audit committee after it was discovered he had previously joked about disabilities on social media.