A BLAENAU Gwent councillor has been censured after criticising an officer during a council meeting last year.

Tredegar councillor Brian Thomas appeared before the authority's standards committee on Friday and they took the decision to censure him, after finding that he had breached the code of conduct for council members.

Councillor Thomas, pictured, said, during the meeting on October 28 last year, that Tredegar had the worst housing manager in the borough.

His comments were ruled out of order and the complaint was made to the Ombudsman following the meeting.

The Ombudsman referred the case back to the council's monitoring officer to investigate.

Councillor Stephen Thomas, a member of the standards committee, told the Argus the decision had been to censure Brian Thomas.

He added the councillor would be required to undertake training on the code of conduct and to write a letter of apology to the officer concerned.

Councillor Thomas said he felt he had been dealt with fairly. "I've breached the code of conduct by naming a member of staff. It wasn't the time or the place," he said.

"I'm not going to appeal because I know that I was guilty. I want to put this behind me now."