CONCERNS about Bournemouth council leader John Beesley will be referred to Dorset Police, the Daily Echo understands.

On Wednesday a formal complaint about the leader signed by 10 Conservative councillors was submitted to the authority’s head of paid service Jane Portman.

The paperwork details alleged breaches of the council’s code of conduct and claims Cllr Beesley failed to properly make declarations of pecuniary interest under the Localism Act 2011.

A key part of the complaint is thought to be Cllr Beesley’s involvement in the recent planning application for the Belvedere Hotel, granted in January, in which he acted as a consultant to developer Fresh Lime Developments.

The Echo understands that as a breach of the law is alleged it must be referred to the police by the council’s monitoring officer, Tanya Coulter.

Both the document itself and the names of the signatories have yet to be disclosed, but the Echo understands that three of them are Cllr Nick Rose who represents the West Cliff ward with Cllr Beesley, Cllr Don McQueen and Cllr Stephen Bartlett.

It is also understood that the complaint document calls for any inquiry to take place outside the council, potentially through legal officers from another local authority, rather than through the borough standards board. This looks likely to happen.

A source among the signatories told the Echo: “The whole purpose of this is so Cllr Beesley has the opportunity to clear his name and ensure the town’s name is cleared as well.

“The critical thing for the next step is that this must be examined by an independent outside party, outside Dorset.”

Cllr Beesley has declined to comment so as not to “jeopardise fair consideration of the matter”. In 2011, as planning board chairman, he faced allegations he breached the code of conduct by not declaring a prejudicial interest in applications involving the firm Planning Solutions, owned by his friend and former councillor Anthony (Tony) Ramsden-Geary.

The case was thrown out because he was found to have followed the advice of council legal officers correctly.