TORFAEN council has come under fire for letting a group of students sit in on a confidential cabinet meeting.

The three students were allowed to stay to watch cabinet councillors discussing confidential information at Pontypool Civic Centre, even though the press and public were excluded.

The council used a section of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude members of the press and public from the council chamber, on the grounds that "exempt" information might be disclosed.

But three students, invited to the meeting as part of a programme to involve more young people in politics, stayed in the chamber to watch the debate.

Beatrice Davies, a community campaigner who attends most Torfaen council meetings, said she was outraged.

"It makes a mockery of the exemption ruling. I am a tax-paying member of the public and I was asked to leave. Therefore the students, who are also members of the public, should be asked to leave too. They should fall under the same ruling. I am disgusted at the cabinet."

Mrs Davies said she will make a formal complaint to the council's ethics and standards committee.

Independent councillor Mike Davies also criticised the council decision. "I believe the council has made an error here," said Councillor Davies. "If anything is exempt is has to be exempt from all the public.

"Although the council should encourage use of the chamber for showing students how the democratic process works, those students should be bound by the same rules as others."

But council staff denied they had done anything wrong. A council spokesman said: "It was decided in advance that on an experimental basis the students would be allowed to stay for the exempt portion of the meeting on this occasion as they were strictly bound by confidentiality and the reports had been appropriately vetted in advance.

"Based on how useful this approach is to involving young people in the council's democracy programme we will decide whether or not to make it a regular feature of cabinet meetings."