The Ombudsman received a complaint that a Member (“the Member”) of Carmarthenshire County Council (“the Council”) had breached the Code of Conduct (“the Code”) by publicly supporting behaviour of another Member (Councillor A) who was alleged to have breached the Code at a public election event and by thereafter failing to deal with the conduct of that Member as a Group Leader.
An investigation considered whether the Member’s conduct was capable of bringing the Council or the role of member into disrepute to be suggestive of a breach of the Code.
Evidence was obtained from the Council, a witness to the behaviour of Councillor A, the Member and publicly available media articles.
Having considered the evidence gathered and explanations provided by the Member for his actions, the Ombudsman was not persuaded that there was evidence to suggest that his actions had brought the Council or the role of Member into disrepute.
Under Section 69(4)(a) of the Local Government Act 2000, the Ombudsman found no evidence of any failure to comply with the Code.