Councillors have been told they cannot help a doctor’s surgery with expansion plans because of a potential conflict of interest.

Halstead town councillors Mick Radley and Dave Gronland had been seeking permission to help the Elizabeth Courtauld surgery formulate a business plan to create extra consultation rooms.

The first floor of the surgery is only used by admin staff and it has been suggested that converting it would be one way to ease patients’ growing demand for appointments.

Despite already assisting the surgery with the proposals, Mr Radley and Mr Gronland had sought approval to further their involvement.

However, the idea was thrown out during a meeting on Monday as fellow councillors raised concerns about the private nature of the work they would be undertaking.

Councillor Warren Fox said: “If they are volunteering as individuals then that’s fine, but if they are volunteering as town councillors, then I see issues.

“The potential risk of doing this would be you could be put in a position where you want to bring something to the town council’s attention but because you have agreed to keep things private and confidential with the surgery you can’t.

“Even if you did it in private session then the public might start asking questions as to why discussions about their doctor’s surgery are not being held in the public domain.”

Councillor Shirley Diver added: “You have taken it as far as you can go, now it’s time to step back and let the experts come in.”

Mr Radley disagreed and argued the town council should be involved with the potential expansion of the surgery.

He said: “As councillors, we are elected to help the people of this town and I believe the work we have done and want to do meets that objective on what is quite an important issue.

“This is not just about sitting around in meetings like traditional councillors. We are committed to working for the surgery and using the skills we have got.

“Quite frankly we have achieved nothing so far, we have had some discussions and that’s it.

“When that surgery’s capacity increases and more patients in this town have medical care then we have achieved something.”

Councillor Andrew Munday was also in favour of supporting the surgery, however, following lengthy discussions, councillors voted against the idea. 

It was suggested Mr Radley and Mr Gronland could volunteer to do the work as individuals.

Plans to expand the surgery would need approval from the landlord of the building, the mid Essex Clinical Commissioning group and NHS England.