A senior county councillor is facing claims of failing to comply with rules about registering his interest in private companies set up and owned by KCC.

Cllr Mike Snelling, who is also the leader of Gravesham council, said he could not recall whether he had recorded his directorship of Kent Top Temps in KCC’s register of interests. He now planned to take advice about whether he should have.

The county council’s involvement in a number of arms-lengths trading companies has recently sparked controversy, with some businesses complaining KCC is not being transparent enough about its activities and claiming they are being undercut.

Kent Top Temps is a major employment agency owned by KCC, filling temporary positions across a range of professions, such as teaching and catering. It has a turnover of about £5million a year.

Mr Snelling was forced to apologise last week (when he failed during a full council meeting to declare his directorship of Kent Top Temps.

It has now been claimed he has overlooked separate rules requiring all county councillors to register interests, such as company directorships.

The claim came from the opposition Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Trudy Dean. She said the entry for Mr Snelling did not include his directorship, which he took up in 2004.

Mr Snelling, who is listed as a director of three other KCC owned companies, said he could not recall whether he had been advised to register his involvement with Kent Top Temps.

“If the advice is that I should have done and I need to, then I will. I will have to check what I have declared and what I have not. I frankly cannot recall what I have declared and what I not. It would not have occurred to me as a major issue,” he said.

But he dismissed the suggestion that any oversight would be grounds for him to stand down as a director, insisting: “I cannot think of any advantage I would have got by not registering the interest.”