A PARISH councillor who broke the rules of his job was trying to do the best for his community, watchdogs have found.

Stan Stubbs fell foul of a clause in the code of conduct which says parish councillors should not use their position to gain an advantage for themselves or anyone else.

But the Wiltshire Council sub-committee hearing his case on Friday decided not to impose any sanction. They agreed the rules were too vaguely worded, and will ask for them to be made clearer.

Mr Stubbs is chairman of the Bourne Valley Alliance of Parish Councils and vice-chairman of Newton Tony Parish Council.

At a meeting in October last year, the alliance was asked by Mike Hewitt, then a district councillor for Upper Bourne, Idmiston and Winterbourne, to support his bid for selection as the local Conservative candidate for Wiltshire Council.

The alliance voted by a majority to do so, and Mr Stubbs signed a letter to the 62 people involved in the selection process.

Corrinne Goodenough, who was then clerk to Allington with Boscombe Parish Council, complained to the, then, district council alleging this amounted to breaching the code.

A lawyer hired to investigate on behalf of the council felt the code had not been breached.

However, the matter ended up with Wiltshire’s standards hearing sub-committee.

On Friday, they ruled Mr Stubbs had breached paragraph 6a of the code.

However, the council issued a statement saying: “Taking everything into account, including their view that Mr Stubbs was genuinely seeking to act in the best interest of the community, they decided to take no action.

“The sub-committee also decided to recommend Standards for England to provide further guidance on this issue.”

Mr Stubbs said: “I have absolutely nothing to hide. I gave people the opportunity to decide whether to discuss the request and they agreed, with one abstention, to discuss it.

“Mr Hewitt had been a district councillor for years, had worked hard, and knew the area well. It had nothing to do with politics.”