AS Dartmouth mayor Paul Allen was officially cleared of a bullying complaint laid against him, the code of conduct panel chairman appeared to blame the press for bringing the town council into disrepute, rather than the actions of the mayor.

As he announced the panel decision, chairman John Baverstock said: 'We do feel that in this case it was not the actions of Cllr Allen that brought it (the town council) into disrepute but the reporting in the press.'

When asked to clarify, a spokesman for the council said: 'The panel considered that while the press reports were accurate, the degree of coverage had impacted on the council's reputation. However, they considered that Cllr Allen could not be held responsible for the level of press interest.'

The panel decision actually went against the prima facie findings of investigating officer Beryl Evans who, in her report to the hearing, said: 'Bringing the council or the individual's office into disrepute requires damage to the reputation to one or both.

'There were several members of the public present at the council meeting in April. Of those Mr Norton (an ex-mayor) and Mr Peacock of the Dartmouth Chronicle were spoken with, as can be seen from the papers at appendix 4. Mr Peacock wrote a detailed account of the incident in the paper circulating within the Dartmouth area and presumably read by many local people.

'It would seem extremely likely that some at least of the readers would consider the mayor's and the council's reputation to be tarnished by the incident. The investigator believes there has been breach of paragraph five of the code by Cllr Allen.'

And in her conclusion to the complaint, she said: 'The investigator concludes that this situation arose, in part at least, because members and the officers are not working as closely as is necessary to achieve sound and informed decision-making. Both members and officers should embrace a more unified approach.'

Editor's comment: As the district council spokesman states, the press reports were accurate – that is to say, they were true. We will continue to report the truth to the best of our abilities, no matter how embarrassing it might be for those in public office.