A LEADING Gwent councillor was censured for wrongly alleging that his authority's director of education had no O or A-levels.

Councillor Graham Powell (pictured) made the allegation about Monmouthshire's education director Phil Cooke to the chief executive of the council, after his ousting as a local education authority governor at the school at the centre of the Marjorie Evans case. At a meeting of Monmouth-shire council last week, a censure motion was passed against the Caldicot councillor.

Cabinet member Councillor Peter Fox, who has responsibility for lifelong learning, said: "We express our deep concern over the way Councillor Powell behaved and we should express our disgust."

Afterwards, Councillor Powell said: "I told the chief executive of Monmouthshire county council, Mrs Elizabeth Raikes, that the director of education, Phil Cooke, did not have O or A-levels.

"They produced documents to prove me wrong so I wrote to Mr Cooke and apologised." The allegation arose after Mr Cooke applied for the job of chief executive, before Mrs Raikes was appointed.

Councillor Powell said: "I based my allegation on his application form for the job of chief executive, because he did not list all his educational qualifications.

"I would have thought that was the end of the matter. I've got nothing to hide. "I was ousted as chairman of governors in a democratic move and a month later I lost my seat as an LEA governor after councillors decided they had no confidence in my ability. "I had spent 51 years as a governor in primary, secondary, further and higher education, and so I appealed to the National Assembly against that decision, and I am still awaiting the outcome."

The decision to publicly censure Councillor Powell was based on a report from the standards committee. An independent consultant investigated the complaint against him. Chief executive Mrs Raikes said: "Members have the right to raise issues and often this will be expressed forcefully, but there has to be mutual respect and common courtesy between members and officers.

"This is the first time an elected member has been censured and it is an isolated incident. Officers and members usually enjoy positive working relationships." Councillor Powell was one of Marjorie Evans' staunch-est supporters during her 18-month ordeal.

He was chairman of governors at St Mary's Junior School, Caldicot, when Mrs Evans was first suspended over the allegation she had struck a ten-year-old boy. She was convicted, and later cleared of the charge on appeal.

She was finally re-instated 18 months later after a disciplinary hearing found there was no case against her to answer.

Mr Cooke was at the centre of investigating the allegations against Mrs Evans.