A CAMPAIGN group hoping to take over an abandoned pub are to lodge a formal complaint against their local councillor – saying he has “failed the community”.

The Garndolbenmaen Community Group, which was hoping to buy the Cross Foxes before its plans were scuppered by planners earlier this month, said that Cllr Steve Churchman, right, “should be ashamed” after failing to speak up for the community on the proposal.

They are also considering a complaint to the Ombudsman.

But Cllr Churchman hit back, claiming the criticism was “unfair”.

He said the decision to allow the Cross Foxes to become a home was a “sad loss for the village” but that Gwynedd Council’s planning committee was left with “no choice” but to approve the plan after several delays while the community group tried to get funding and business plans in place to buy it and turn it into a community hub.

According to the minutes of the planning committee meetings where the application was discussed, Cllr Churchman declared an interest in the application, and “members were of the opinion that [it was a] prejudicial interest”, and Cllr Churchman “withdrew from the chamber during the discussions”.

In a leaflet sent to residents, Cllr Churchman said that he lives next door and as the applicant is his neighbour and he is a “regular customer” of the pub, the outcome of the application “would have a direct impact on me”.

Caroll Ann Morris of the Garndolbenmaen Community Group, which was due to meet on Wednesday night to continue its battle against the decision, said that Cllr Churchman had “failed the community”, and she would be lodging a formal code of conduct complaint and taking the case to the Ombudsman for Wales.

Read the full story in today’s Arfon/Dwyfor edition of the Cambrian News