Councillors have approved a change to the county council's recruitment procedure to prevent former councillors being hired into paid roles until 12 months have passed since they left office.

It follows former Hucknall West Councillor Phil Rostance (Con) being hired into the position of Executive Officer to the Senior Leadership Team (Ruling Group) in November last year.

This was roughly six months after he stopped being a councillor following his defeat to Cllr Dave Shaw (Ash Ind) in May 2021's local elections.

His employment came despite Schedule 116 of the Local Government Act 1972 stating former councillors are "not to be appointed as officers" until at least 12 months after they ceased to be a member of that authority.

This rule is in place to prevent any conflicts of interest and to reduce political influence in senior officer positions – although there was no suggestion Cllr Rostance's appointment led to either.

The authority's chief executive apologised when the rule breach became apparent and said it was a "genuine mistake".

Councillors debated behind closed doors at the November full council meeting to discuss an outcome to Cllr Rostance's position. He remains in the role.

But the authority also pledged to alter its recruitment practices to prevent a similar breach from occurring in the future.

Now members of the council's personnel committee have approved a new line in the recruitment checklist to restrict former councillors from applying for paid officer roles.

It states: "Any statutory bars relating to elected members who cannot hold paid employment with the council for the first 12 months of leaving office."

Other checks on this list include proof of qualifications, validated references, a relevant DBS check and proof of eligibility to work in the UK.

The documents add recruits will not be set up on the authority's payroll if "any one of these requirements has not been met to a satisfactory standard".

Members of the personnel committee welcomed the change before giving it approval on Wednesday (March 9).

Cllr Gordon Wheeler (Con), chairman of the committee, said the changes will address the "way forward" following Cllr Rostance's unlawful hiring.

He said: "At a full airing at full council we acknowledged mistakes were made, we do understand that of course we do, but this report is addressing the way forward.

"We have listened to what was said at full council, and we've brought the report forward today."

Opposition councillors also welcomed the move but said the initial situation posed a reputation risk to the authority.

Cllr Helen-Ann Smith (Ash Ind), who represents Sutton North, said: "We welcome this review, we know there was failure adhere to practices in the past and it caused a difficult situation last year.

"No doubt it did cause some damage to the reputation of the council, the timing of which was very unfortunate given the national climate.

"I'm glad we've been able to get this sorted so we don't have this coming up again in the future, I disagreed with it at the time and I still do, I disagree with how we sidestepped things and got away with it."

Cllr Errol Henry (Lab), who represents Carlton West, added: "It's clearly a bit too late, in this instance, to do something about what happened previously – we are where we are.

"We did appoint somebody unlawfully, but the suggestion of adding some words to the personal handbook will change anything, I'm not sure about.

"But where there is a political will to change things, it can happen and it can happen very quickly – that's one good thing to come from it."

Anthony May, the authority's chief executive and head of paid services, issued a statement before the November full council meeting apologising for the law breach and describing it as a "serious matter".

Cllr Rostance, who continues to represent Hucknall West for the Conservatives on Ashfield District Council, did not wish to comment when approached by the Local Democracy Reporting Service last November.