IT cost the deputy leader of Bournemouth council £20,000 for legal advice to defend himself against allegations which took only an hour to dismiss.

And the authority’s leader has pledged to find out the cost to the council tax payer of the 15-month investigation – a figure expected to run into tens of thousands of pounds.

Deputy council leader Cllr John Beesley had been the subject of a complaint by Liberal Democrat councillor Roger West over his time as chairman of the borough’s planning board. The case centred on the way he declared an interest in applications being handled by planning consultant Tony Ramsden, a friend and former councillor.

The inquiry ended with a national tribunal sitting for one morning and clearing his name after an hour’s deliberations.

In the tribunal’s detailed reasons for its decision, made public yesterday, Judge Chris Hughes wrote: “There was no indication of any other behaviour than that of an individual careful to ensure that he discharged his significant public responsibilities fully and fairly.”

Cllr Beesley, Conservative member for Westbourne and West Cliff, said: “Fifteen months is a long time and it has put me under very significant anxiety and strain.

“When you have an allegation where it takes a judge an hour to come to a conclusion, it puts into sharp focus how very badly the system has been interpreted.”

He said the case had threatened his reputation in business as well as in his council role.

“It’s been very difficult for my family seeing all sorts of things rehearsed publicly over such a long period of time,” he said.

The tribunal agreed with Cllr Beesley that he never had a prejudicial interest in applications dealt with by Mr Ramsden. It agreed that he followed the advice of the council’s monitoring officer in declaring only a personal interest.

Council leader Cllr Peter Charon had backed Cllr Beesley even when Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood had called for the deputy leader to stand down.

Cllr Charon said: “I felt it was the right thing to do. It wasn’t out of some sense of blind loyalty. It was fundamentally as I believe in natural justice.

“I believe a person is innocent until proven guilty and everything I’ve seen is either spurious or had no relevance whatsoever and so I was totally confident he would be 100 per cent vindicated.”

Cllr West said the case had been “strangely handled” by the council.

“I’ve not challenged the decision but I think it’s strange that the monitoring officer wasn’t called to give witness and I wasn’t called,” he said.