CONTROVERSIAL local councillor, Paul Dowson, has cleared his name after the The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales rejected a complaint by a member of the public.
The substance of the complaint refers to a link on Paul Dowson’s Facebook page which inferred that Dowson supported an historical allegation of sexual misconduct by another County Councillor.
For legal reasons we cannot print the details of this.
The complainant said he believed this link indicated evidence that Cllr Dowson breached the Code of Conduct for councillors.
Writing to the complainant on Thursday (Oct 8), Casework Officer Caron Westmoreland said: “I have now been able to consider your recent complaint against Cllr Dowson. Under the authority
delegated to me by the Ombudsman, I have decided not to investigate the complaint.”
The Ombudsman’s office decided that the complainant ‘had not provided sufficient evidence to substantiate his complaint’ that Cllr Dowson breached the Code of Conduct for members. The Ombudsman will not investigate unless there is reasonable strong evidence to suggest that the member concerned breached the Code of Conduct.
Cllr Dowson said: “I did nothing wrong and the complainant was not able to prove that I did anything wrong. This was just another baseless accusation.”
