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Davis since 2015 received a massive 514 gifts and hospitality from various developers including trips to Switzerland, Spain, France, the US and a stay a 'gorgeous' five star resort.
Hazel Best who investigated the case said that Davis received gifts from developers involved in the planning process or decision. She tempered her fury at the flagrant abuse of the Code of Conduct by saying the 'hospitality was not unlawful'.
Davis's partner was the late Simon Milton, former Council leader and it was Davis who populated Westminster with various memorials to Milton....
Davis also organised fund raising dinners in support of his late partner's foundation.
If you were a developer you were wise to take a table!
A resident asked the Dame whether there were any skeletons in the K&C cupboard: after all, what with the tri borough arrangement there was a 'closeness'
I wonder if he and Pooter Cockell shared experiences of high level troughing
ReplyDeleteWoe betide any Westminster business that refused to attend one of Davis's fundraisers for his mate,Milton. Milton was a great friend of the Porter crook
ReplyDeleteTake a week in the life of Nick Paget-Brown, the Kensington and
ReplyDeleteChelsea leader who resigned in the aftermath of the Grenfell fire. In
October last year he had lunch at the five-star riverside Royal
Horseguards Hotel courtesy of the property giant Willmott Dixon. The
previous evening he had been at a reception put on by the business
lobby group London First, whose membership is dominated by property
and housing firms. He had breakfast with the Grosvenor Estate, the
global property empire worth £6.5bn, and lunch at Knightsbridge’s
Carlton Tower Hotel. This was paid for by the Cadogan Estate, the
second largest of the aristocratic estates (after Grosvenor), which
owns 93 acres in Kensington, including Sloane Square and the King’sRoad."
The above paragraph is an excerpt from an article published in 2017, link attached:
ReplyDeletehttp://tlio.org.uk/2017/07/
These people are all tarred with the same brush!!
Robert Davis (British politician)
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Davis
Born Robert Jonathan Davis
September 1957 (age 62)
Residence London, England
Nationality British
Education Christ's College, Finchley
Alma mater Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Occupation Lawyer and politician
Political party Conservative
Partner(s) Sir Simon Milton (m. 2007; his death 2011)
Robert Jonathan Davis MBE DL (born September 1957) is a British lawyer and Conservative Party politician. He was deputy leader of the Westminster City Council, and chairman of its planning committee for 17 years.[1]
Contents
1 Early life
2 Legal career
3 Political career
4 Allegations
5 Honours and awards
6 Personal life
7 References
8 External links
Early life
Robert Davis was born in September 1957.[2] He is the son of Gerald Davis (died 2000) and Pamela Davis née Lee.[3]
He was educated at Christ's College, Finchley,[3] followed by Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge,[4] Wolfson College, Cambridge, after which he trained as a solicitor at the College of Law in London's Lancaster Gate.[5] He was admitted as a solicitor in October 1983.[6]
Legal career
From 1985 to 2015, Davis was a partner (now a consultant) in solicitors' firm Freeman Box, Bentinck Street, Marylebone, London, and he specialises in property law.[5][3]
Political career
In 1982, Davis was first elected to Westminster City Council, and at the time of his resignation was its longest currently serving Councillor, with a tenure lasting 36 years.[7] He was also the longest-serving Westminster councillor since the borough's formation in 1965. Davis was initially elected for the Bayswater ward, before representing Lancaster Gate from 1986 onwards.[8]
From 1996 to 1997, he was the then youngest Lord Mayor of Westminster.[7] Davis was deputy leader of Westminster City Council from January 2017 until October 2018, and its Cabinet Member for Business, Culture and Heritage.[1] In October 2018, following criticism of "the large scale of gifts and hospitality" received by Davis from property developers, he resigned his position and seat.[9][10]
Allegations
On 7 March 2018, Davis stood down from his roles after The Guardian reported into how he had received nearly 900 gifts or been entertained, during the period from 2012 to 2017, much of it from property developers.[11][1]
Davis enjoyed hospitality from leading property developers, including Gerald Ronson, Sir Stuart Lipton, Brian Bickell[12] and Sir George Iacobescu.[1] Council rules require that any gifts or hospitality valued at £25 or more have to be declared, and Davis's register included trips to Switzerland, Spain, France, the US, and Scotland's Gleneagles Hotel and golf resort.[1]
Westminster's legal director is investigating whether Davis has breached the code of conduct, and the independent barrister James Goudie QC is helping with the investigation.[11]
The independent investigation by Sir Stephen Lamport, which reported in October 2018, found that Davis had "breached the code of conduct" and that his "acceptance of gifts and hospitality from developers before or after a planning decision may … have placed him in a position in which people might seek to influence him in the performance of his duties."[9][10]
Honours and awards
Davis is a Deputy Lieutenant for Greater London.[7] In 2015, he was awarded an MBE for services to local government and planning.[7]
Personal life
His long-term partner (until his death in 2011) was Sir Simon Milton, who had been leader of Westminster City Council and Deputy Mayor of London to Boris Johnson.[4] In 2007, they entered into a civil partnership at London's Ritz Hotel.[4]
Simon Milton (politician)
ReplyDeleteFrom Wikipedia
Sir Simon Henry Milton
Statue of Sir Simon Milton, Paddington Basin, London
Deputy Mayor of London for Policy and Planning
In office 2008–2011
Leader of Westminster City Council
In office 2000–2008
Preceded by Melvyn Caplan
Succeeded by Colin Barrow
Councillor, Lancaster Gate Ward
In office 1988 – 2008 (resigned)
Preceded by Peter Hartley (resigned; Con)
Succeeded by Andrew Smith (Con)
Personal details
Born 2 October 1961 London, England
Died 11 April 2011 (aged 49)
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Domestic partner Robert Davis
(m. 2007; his death 2011)
Alma mater Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Profession Public relations
Sir Simon Henry Milton (2 October 1961 – 11 April 2011) was a British Conservative politician.[1] He lately served as London's Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning, and before that was a leader of Westminster City Council and Chairman of the Local Government Association. Milton was a director of Ian Greer Associates, a parliamentary lobbying company "with close links to the Tory party" which was at the centre of the Cash-for-questions scandal in the 1990s.[2][3][4]
Contents
1 Early life
2 Knighthood
3 Mayor Boris Johnson's administration
4 Personal life
5 The Sir Simon Milton Foundation
6 See also
7 References
Early life
Milton was the son of Clive and Ruth Milton and was raised in Cricklewood, London. His father was one of the Jewish children rescued by the Kindertransport mission and brought to Britain in 1939.[5] Milton was educated at St Paul's School, London, and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he was Chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association and President of the Cambridge Union.[1]
He started his working career in Sharaton's, his father's business, a chain of patisserie shops and bakers with about twenty shops in North London. The business was sold to Ponti's on his father's retirement.
He stood for Parliament unsuccessfully for the Conservative Party in Leicester East in the 1997 General Election.
Knighthood
Milton was named a Knight Bachelor in the 2006 New Year's honours list for services to local government.[6]
Mayor Boris Johnson's administration
With effect from 6 May 2008, Milton was appointed to the position of Senior Adviser, Planning, in the administration of London Mayor Boris Johnson.[7] This led to his resignation as a councillor. From September 2008 he became a full-time politician as the administration's Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing policies for the built environment. In June 2009, Milton was also appointed Chief of Staff to the Mayor, with responsibility for managing the Mayoral advisors, as well as the Greater London Authority budgets and administration.
Personal life
Milton was diagnosed with leukaemia in 1990. In 1998 he underwent a bone-marrow transplant. As a result, his immune system was weakened, leading to a bout of pneumonia which seriously damaged his lungs. His health never fully recovered.[1] He and his partner Robert Davis, fellow Westminster Councillor and former Lord Mayor of Westminster, were together for over 20 years and entered into a civil partnership in June 2007.[8]
He was a member of the West London Synagogue.[9]
Milton died on 11 April 2011, aged 49.[10]
The Sir Simon Milton Foundation
Christabel Flight, the wife of Howard Flight, and a protegé and fellow Councillor of Milton at the City of Westminster, proposed setting up a foundation in his name. It has brought together a number of prominent trustees, mainly from the Conservative Party, many with links to Westminster Council. These include Baroness Eaton and Tony Pidgley, with John Barradell, Town Clerk of London as the chair.[11] The purpose of the charity is the promotion of Simon Milton's vision to help both young and older people in the City of Westminster, and elsewhere across London.[12]
See also
Homes for votes scandal
Westminster cemeteries scandal
Jigsaw why publish this irrelevant stuff....and twice?
ReplyDeleteTony Pidgley(Berkeley Homes) would have been one of the beneficiaries of warm relations with Davis and Milton Ltd
ReplyDeleteJigsaw published two very relevant wiki biographies, those of Simon Milton and Robert Davis. There is nothing to hide is there?
ReplyDeleteI agree. They are entirely relevant. Davis makes Cockell seem relatively frugal.
ReplyDeleteIt was de riguer for anyone doing business with WCC to pay a huge amount of money to the Simon Milton Foundation. The dinners....vulgar and common affairs....were a passport to getting permissions through. A very subtle form of corruption
ReplyDeleteThe Bi-Borough arrangement needs scrutiny, RBKC receives a poor deal.
ReplyDeleteWhy is RBKC bi?