CAMPAIGNERS are calling for immediate action on the district auditor's report into the awarding of vehicle recovery contracts.

The auditors were called in to investigate how a contract allowed Walls Recovery Service to charge unspecified rates for recovery and storage of vehicles.

The auditor, Paul Griffiths, criticised Gwent Police for failing "in its duty to protect the interests of the public".

His report also slammed the Gwent county council department which negotiated the contract on behalf of the police for "taking inappropriate and unethical commission."

Mark Cronin, 39, of Eureka Garage in Ebbw Vale, was a leader of the 'Gwent Seven' who campaigned for years against the way the contract was awarded and managed.

The seven, led the Gwent Recovery Group of businesses that blockaded the Severn Crossing, organised petitions and repeatedly warned the police of their concerns.

Mr Cronin says that the police were forced to take action because of their campaign.

Mr Cronin said: "Before the 1994 there 53 garages across Gwent who recovered vehicles for the police on a rota basis. In 1994 the work went from being distributed to 53 firms to just one.

"As a result I lost £30,000 a year and we were all badly affected. Some companies went out of business and a lot of others really suffered.

"Everything we said from day one has been vindicated, it is just amazing it took so long.

"It is completely wrong that the people who were responsible for drawing up the contract in the first place for Gwent county council are now doing the same job for Torfaen county council."

Torfaen council is to launch its own internal investigation into the way in which the contract was let by Gwent county council.

One of those who suffered as a result of the recovery contract arrangements in 1994 was Don Logan, of Abergavenny. His firm, Logan & Son, founded in 1968, folded when the police work dried up.

Mr Logan, 68, said: "For 34 years we depended on the police work then overnight it stopped.

'It was very unfair, the first we knew was a letter saying we hadn't got the tender and that was the end of our business."