COUNCILLORS at the centre of a lengthy investigation which was dropped this week on a legal technicality have spoken out in response.

The Post revealed yesterday that the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales had decided to drop an investigation into the conduct of 32 city councillors.

Almost two years after a controversial meeting on Swansea Council's IT deal with CapGemini, it has emerged that flawed legal advice at that meeting meant that the Labour and Conservative members would not face action over their behaviour.

At the meeting, in July 2008, the opposition councillors had argued that the details of the IT deal should be discussed in public. When they were voted down, all 32 left the meeting.

They were reported for breaching the code of conduct by council leader Chris Holley.

However, the case was dropped after a leading Queen's Counsel found that the advice given at the meeting by the council's monitoring officer David Daycock, who has since left the council, was "wrong in law and could not be considered 'relevant advice'."

Labour group leader David Phillips said: "We are clearly delighted that after all this time and a considerable amount of public money that has been spent on this investigation, we have been found not to be in breach of the code, a position we have held from the very beginning.

Surprised

"However, some of the content of the letter is seriously concerning and we are taking legal advice as to what actions are available to us as individuals and a group.

"I was very surprised to read this in the paper as I, together with many of my members, am still to receive the letter from the Ombudsman."

Conservative group leader Rene Kinzett said: "My group considered the advice of Mr Daycock, the then head of the legal service at Swansea Council. We found that his advice was flawed, an opinion which is now proved to be correct because the Ombudsman has said the legal advice that we were given was not legally accurate.

"We are still very angry that Mr Daycock chose to write a five-page letter to the Ombudsman, urging him to investigate the 32 members of this authority.

"We feel that the elected representatives of the people of Swansea have on occasion been very badly served by some of the officers we employ and serious questions have to be asked about the quality of advice we have sometimes been getting from our public servants.

"This investigation has been an expensive farce and has led to the point where it was always going to, which was to fall apart."

A council spokesman said: "The important thing is for the council to learn from this process. It is critical that we have an understanding of the Ombudsman's position so that legal advisers both here and elsewhere can be clear in the advice they give to councillors in such circumstances."

Councillor Holley expressed his disappointment at the news that the case had been dropped, saying he still felt there had been a "clear breach of the code of conduct". He said the fact that the case was discontinued on a technicality "beggars belief".

He said: "The Ombudsman has said nothing about the financial warning given to members."

alex.brown@swwmedia.co.uk