A PONTYPOOL man has scored a victory for thousands of council tenants in Torfaen after forcing a dramatic U-turn by the local authority.

Terry Stundon, from Penygarn, single-handedly took Torfaen county borough council to task for trying to introduce a new tenancy agreement without proper consultation.

Following his written objection, the new agreement, which would have seen a significant increase in tenants' repair responsibilities, was hastily dropped by the council.

A council spokesman admitted the agreement had been scrapped following legal advice. "This is an utter waste of people's money," said furious Mr Stundon, who lives in Park Crescent.

"Goodness knows how much it cost to print and send out all those agreements, and now they're useless," he added.

The agreement went out to houses in January, with a proposed start date of February 18. This, said Mr Stundon, was after only a small announcement in Tenant's News asking for views.

"Nobody reads it anyway, it's full of self-trumpeting," Mr Stundon claimed. "As soon as I saw the agreement I knew I had to challenge it.

"They are trying to make us responsible for hedges and footpaths, among other things." He sent a carefully drafted letter to the council on February 6, questioning the legality of the agreement.

Just two weeks later, on February 20, he received a reply from client services manager, Lyn Cadwallader, thanking him for his comments and advising that the new terms would not be introduced.

One of Mr Stundon's neighbours is Councillor Mike Davies, a member of the scrutiny committee which discussed the new agreement.

He said: "I expressed my anxiety over its contents, and how tenants would react to it. "My concerns did not seem to be shared by any other members."