THE controversial appointment of a Cornwall councillor to a top Spaceport Cornwall job while he was still the cabinet member for the economy has taken another turn.

A Cornish MP and a number of councillors are calling for an investigation after it was suggested Cllr Louis Gardner didn’t declare an interest while in a council meeting which agreed to give the Spaceport thousands of pounds worth of funding; he was appointed as its Head of Future Air and Space just days later.

Cllr Gardner was appointed to the £70,000-a-year role at Spaceport Cornwall, which is part of the Newquay airport estate, last month while still a member of Cornwall Council’s Conservative administration. He stepped down as portfolio holder for the economy on taking the job and will retire as a councillor at the May 1 election.

Opposition councillors questioned whether there had been a conflict of interest. Former leader of the council Julian German posted on social media platform X: “After four years of lobbying for money-losing Spaceport Cllr Louis Gardner gets a job there!l! Thought I was at Newlyn fish market it smells so fishy.”

North Cornwall MP Ben Maguire hit out last week at what he called a “deeply questionable appointment process” following a letter of reply from Neil Edmond, the CEO of Cornwall Council-owned company Corserv, which runs Cornwall Airport Ltd, confirming that Cllr Gardner was appointed to the role at the Spaceport after an earlier round of interviews ended with him not being shortlisted.

Mr Edmond said: “Twenty-seven candidates applied for this role when it was originally advertised in July 2024. Two other candidates were shortlisted for interview, not including Mr Gardner. This first interview series was ultimately unsuccessful. The role was still open and, following reconsideration, Mr Gardner was interviewed and offered the post.”

Corserv has since said that Cllr Gardner withdrew from the initial employment process. Mr Edmond said there has been no conflict of interest with Cllr Gardner in his cabinet role as the Spaceport job is not a public appointment.

However, Mr Maguire is now “escalating the whole issue” after it was revealed that Cllr Gardner was part of an Economic Prosperity Board meeting on February 27 which agreed to allot what is believed to be around £200,000 of Shared Prosperity Funding (SPF) to the Spaceport, while the Head of Future Air and Space recruitment process was being carried out. He was offered the role at the beginning of March.

The EPB is a joint committee of Cornwall Council and the Council of the Isles of Scilly operated by Cornwall Council.

During the public part of the meeting, before the press and public were excluded for private discussions on financial details of the SPF funding, members were asked if they had any declarations of interest. Cllr Gardner did not declare an interest despite going through the employment process. He now controls a Spaceport budget which is likely to include the SPF funding that was allocated as part of the board meeting he attended.

During the private part of the meeting, Cllr Gardner seconded an approved recommendation “that delegated authority be given to the Service Director for Economy and Skills to negotiate relevant contract conditions and enter into all relevant funding agreements on such terms and conditions as they consider appropriate for the applications approved.”

Mr Maguire, who spoke out against Cllr Gardner’s employment at the Spaceport last week, told us: “This latest revelation raises even further serious questions about transparency and public trust. Was this clear conflict of interest declared at the time – and were there really no eyebrows raised when Cllr Gardner, days before securing a £70,000 job at the Spaceport, was a key part of the decision-making process to approve its funding?

“I’ll now be escalating this matter to the Commissioner for Public Appointments and engaging directly with Cornwall Council’s monitoring officer to ensure this potentially serious breach of standards is investigated to the fullest extent.”

Opposition councillors have also spoken out.  Cllr Kate Ewert, group leader of Labour at Cornwall Council, said: “This raises further questions about the complicity and integrity of this Conservative-led administration. Serious questions need to be answered about the process that has been followed and has led to Louis Gardner getting this well-paid job.”

Cllr German, of the Independent group, added: “It would be totally unacceptable if Cllr Gardner was involved in making decisions to financially support Spaceport whilst he was going through the recruitment process. It seems to me that it is in the public interest for this to be clarified by Cornwall Council.”

Leader of the Liberal Democrats group Cllr Leigh Frost said: “This information raises serious questions about the validity of the decision making. How can someone influence the direction of funding when one of the applicants is their future potential employer?”

We asked Cornwall Council if Cllr Gardner should have declared an interest at the meeting. A spokesperson responded: “Members are responsible for declaring any non-registerable interests or disclosable pecuniary interests at any meeting they attend. Any code of conduct complaints submitted to the council will be given full consideration by the monitoring officer.”

A spokesperson for Corserv, which operates the Spaceport, said Cllr Gardner’s attendance at meetings in his role as a councillor was a matter for Cornwall Council to comment on. However, in response to Mr Maguire’s comments last week on the shortlisting process for the role Head of Future Air and Space, the company has now added: “We are committed to conducting a robust and fair recruitment process across all of our businesses and subsidiaries.

“Regarding the shortlisting process for the role of Head of Future Air and Space, I would like to clarify that Mr Gardner was part of the initial application process, but was not shortlisted due to his decision to withdraw from the process on the grounds that at that point in time the opportunity with Spaceport was not compatible with his work/personal commitments.

“The recruitment process subsequently was not able to identify a suitable candidate and then entered into a period where the search was paused. When the recruitment process recommenced, Mr Louis Gardner applied and was successful after completing a robust interview/suitability assessment.”

Cllr Gardner was contacted for comment on Tuesday but have yet to receive a reply.