TEN Torfaen councillors have been found in breach of the councillors’ code of conduct.

Investigations have been carried out by the Ombudsman against councillors Brian Mawby, Fiona Cross, Maria Graham, Ron Burnett, Julianna Biggs, Mike Jeremiah, Marlene Thomas, Brian Whitcombe, Lewis Jones and John Marshall.

Four other councillors are currently being investigated for similar reasons.

But in the light of two earlier breaches by councillors, which resulted in both being censured, the Ombudsman recommended taking no further action against the ten.

The investigations concerning the ten were all in relation to failures to declare personal and prejudicial interests in respect of donations ranging from £100-£200 under the Members’ Small Schemes.

An Ombudsman probe followed a complaint about sisters Cllrs Catherine Lewis and Elizabeth Haynes, who made donations of £250 and £400 respectively, from their small scheme allowance to WECAN Limited, but failed to declare that Cllr Lewis was a director of the organisation.

The Ombudsman found the pair had breached the code of conduct and the councillors were censured.

In a report to the council’s ethics and standards committee, the chief legal and monitoring officer, Lynda Willis said: “He feels that a similar case recently considered by this committee, which he considers was more serious than those referred to in this report, resulted in a censure and therefore it is unlikely that a sanction would be imposed upon these councillors if he reported to the ethics and standards committee. On that basis he has found that no action needs to be taken in respect of the matters investigated.”

Complaints against other councillors are with the Ombudsman but he has not yet made a decision as to whether he will investigate.