A Glantwymyn county councillor and his colleague have been cleared by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, while a third is still under investigation.

Cllr Elwyn Vaughan and Gwilym Williams, of Disserth and Trecoed, had been the subject of a complaint by Cllr David Price of Llanafanfawr.

He accused the pair of harassing him.

Cllrs Vaughan and Williams had already made their own complaint about him.

The issues between the councillors date back to 2018.

At a planning committee meeting in July 2018, Cllr Price was given a certificate of lawfulness for 28 caravan pitches for his family business, Noyadd Farm, near Builth Wells.

Evidence showed the site had run with 28 pitches without the certificate for a number of years.

Under Caravan Club rules he was only allowed to have five pitches.

At the meeting, planning officers said Cllr Price had been running the caravan site without the certificate for too long to be subject to enforcement action. This followed an internal investigation into the caravan site by Powys County Council.

Complaints had been made by other caravan site owners that Cllr Price, who was also Powys High Sheriff in 2018/19, was flouting planning regulations by having more pitches than he should have.

Cllrs Williams and Vaughan argued at the planning meeting that Cllr Price’s application should be decided by another local authority. They believed that Cllr Price, as a former chairman of the planning committee, should have known that he needed to change the status of the caravan park.

Cllr Vaughan went as far as calling for Cllr Price’s resignation.

After Cllr Price was given the certificate of lawfulness, he complained that both councillors were “harassing him” due to the continued negative publicity surrounding him. He had threatened legal action against the pair.

This led to him making his own complaint against them to the Ombudsman in October 2018.

A spokeswoman for the Ombudsman said: “The complaint into Cllrs Vaughan and Williams has been closed as there was no evidence found that they had breached the code of conduct.

“The investigation into Cllr Price is still ongoing.”

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