A pair of senior councillors failed to register a string of functions hosted by the 46th richest man in Essex on their disclosure forms.

Last week The Guardian reported that John Philip, Epping Forest District Council's planning portfolio holder, had been taken on a £500 trip to Rioja in Spain by Mark Anderson.

Mr Anderson is worth £64m and heads up the Anderson Group, which employs 400 people and builds extensively across Essex.

Cllr Philip, who is leading the council's 15 year, 11,400 home Local Plan, denied any conflict of interest regarding the freebie holiday, which was including on his register of interest.

What was not however, were four nights out at Anderson Foundation events checked in on Facebook by Cllr Philip, at least one of which appears to have been attended through free tickets.

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Evenings out included Cllr Philip and his wife Rosalyn enjoying the comedy of Michael McIntyre at the 02 and rubbing shoulders with footballers Jamie Vardey and Denis Wise.

Cllr Gagan Mohindra (below), the council's business support portfolio holder, joined the couple for a Anderson Foundation Christmas lunch at the Corinthia Hotel.

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While this was not included on his register of interests, his trips to the Foundation's summer ball and day out at a Premier League football match with Mark's brother Rory Anderson were.

Cllr Mohindra said: "I can confirm that my declarations remain in line with the Council’s code of conduct and my declarations are consistent with both the spirit and the letter of the code."

As well as the councillors' close connections to the property developers, the remarkably out of date state of many members' registers of interest also came to light.

Councillors such as Anne Grigg, Heather Brady and Ricki Gadsby have not filled out a form since 2012.

A spokesperson for the council said: "Individual councillors make their own judgements on when it is necessary to declare an interest.

"Any dispute would be looked into by the Standards Committee.

"Each councillors register is updated when they are elected.

"Between then and the next election, they only need to update it if there is something new to add or amend.

"Therefore, unless something has changed, the declarations for councillors in seats due for election this coming May would be dated 2015."

Cllr Philip declined to comment.