A COUNTY councillor accused of misleading the public over plans to cut Gloucestershire’s library services did not breach the authority’s code of conduct, a standards committee has ruled.

Conservative councillor Antonia Noble was cleared of wrongdoing following a complaint from John Holland, the chairman of pressure group Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries.

But Mr Holland, who had accused Cllr Noble of deliberately deceiving the general public and members of Gloucestershire County Council, blasted the committee’s decision, declaring the outcome "a whitewash."

The allegations made by Mr Holland against Cllr Noble centred on a statement she made in her former role as lead cabinet member for library services last April.

In a cabinet report Cllr Noble, who was at that time tasked with shaping GCC’s library strategy, said: "Wards found to be in the top ten per cent of the country’s multiple deprivation indices were assessed as one of the criterion for evaluating how future library services could be provided."

Mr Holland, a former assistant head of libraries for Gloucestershire said the statement was misleading.

"The implication was that information about the needs of the poorest areas in the county was used to inform the library review. In fact, it was not," he said.

"It seems extraordinary that the council will not admit this, and uphold the charge."

Following a judicial review in November 2011, GCC’s library strategy was deemed unlawful on equality grounds and Cllr Noble was later replaced as lead cabinet member for library services.

"Had we not challenged this in court and won the judicial review, the county’s poorest areas would now be running and funding their own non-statutory libraries, or these libraries would by now be closed," Mr Holland said.

The standards committee, which ruled on the issue on Friday, April 12, agreed unanimously that Cllr Noble had not breached GCC’s members code of conduct.

It said: "Cllr Noble had not made a factually incorrect statement, nor had she deliberately intended to mislead those who would be reading her report.

"The Committee did not consider this to be a breach of the code of conduct as the wording of the statement complained of is open to misinterpretation."

GCC and the Conservative Party group declined to comment.