A hearing into a county councillor's alleged breach of a code of conduct was adjourned this week due to the submission of new evidence which the council's standards committee felt was too late to consider.

The hearing had been called to determine the results of an investigation by the Ombudsman for Wales into whether County Clr. Malcolm Calver had failed to comply with the member's code of conduct for Manorbier Community Council and Pembrokeshire County Council, both of which he represents.

The investigation stemmed from a complaint which he himself had originally made to the Ombudsman.

During the Ombudsman's investigation into that matter, it was claimed that unsigned draft minutes of community council meetings had been posted on the website http://www.manorbier.com">www.manorbier.com run by Clr. Calver.

The Ombudsman was also concerned that the content of statements on the website appeared to be both critical and derogatory towards the council and its members, leading the matter to be referred to the county council's monitoring officer and standards committee.

However, Clr. Calver's legal representative told the committee on Tuesday that there was extra documentation which they wished to be considered for the case hearing. It had been submitted during the previous 48 hours.

Initially the committee felt it was too late to take the new documents into account, but after Clr. Calver's representative argued that serious unfairness would be shown to his client if he wasn't able to make reference to this evidence, an adjournment of the hearing was requested, which the Ombudsman and standards committee agreed to.

Committee chairman, Mr. John Edge, requested that the new documentation be submitted in a better format as it was difficult to read, and Clr. Calver's representative stated that it would be no more than 28 days before this requirement was met.

After the hearing was adjourned, Clr. Calver stated: "After the committee initially decided to refuse acceptance of the late documentation, they changed their decision after legally arguing that it should be considered, so I'm glad that all the evidence I produced in that document will be now be taken into consideration."