THE Public Services Ombudsman has investigated the actions of a former Fishguard and Goodwick town councillor after he misled his fellow councillors into believing he was securing lottery cash.

The watchdog was notified that Councillor Chris John had misled the town council during five meetings spanning April 2013 to March 2014, by giving the impression that he had submitted an application with the Heritage Lottery Fund to finance upcoming World War One commemorations in the twin towns.

Cllr John told councillors that his application had progressed past the ‘first stage’ to ‘stage two’ of the process. Subsequent enquiries by the town council revealed that Cllr John had only submitted an expression of interest and that he had not applied for funding.

The mayor at the time, Cllr Richard Grosvenor said the Cllr John’s inaction had left it too late for an application to be made and that many local organisations had been let down.

In the report, the Ombudsman found that Cllr John may have breached paragraph 6 1 (a) of the code of conduct, but as he resigned on November 22, 2014 due to moving out of the parish, no further action was required.

Cllr John was elected to the town council in 2012 and Cllr Grosvenor said: “We really thought we had a good, long term councillor. His grandfather was a former mayor and he had a winning and engaging personality.

“Cllr John gave very articulate reports and he was praised by his fellow councillors for all the hard work he had been putting into the WWI project.”

He added: “This really is an embarrassing situation for the council.”

The town clerk Sarah McColl-Dorion said: “Misrepresenting is a serious offence as the town council acts as a whole.

“Once we knew Cllr John had been misleading us, Richard was obliged to contact the Ombudsman or he too would have breached the code of conduct.”

Cllr John was contacted by the Western Telegraph but he declined to make a comment.