THE position of Bournemouth council’s top legal officer has been described as “untenable” after a hearing which cleared the authority’s deputy leader of any wrongdoing over planning applications.

The evidence of monitoring officer Joy Postings had been crucial to the case against Councillor John Beesley, who was exonerated by a national tribunal after only an hour’s deliberations after a 15-month investigation.

Cllr Beesley had produced evidence to contradict Ms Posting’s version of events in the case – including a potentially crucial email which he found on his own computer, but which the council had never produced in its evidence.

The council had argued that Cllr Beesley had failed to declare a prejudicial interest in planning applications handled by consultant Tony Ramsden, a friend and former colleague on the council.

Ms Postings had said she was not fully aware of the extent of their friendship when she advised Cllr Beesley that he only had to declare a personal, rather than prejudicial, interest in applications involving Mr Ramsden.

But Cllr Beesley’s barrister pointed to Ms Postings’ own notes of a meeting in November 2007 which said she was aware of the two men’s previous business partnership, their friendship and the fact that Cllr Beesley was godfather to Mr Ramsden’s son.

The additional email found by Cllr Beesley showed that Ms Postings had been shown the words which he was advised to use in declaring his interests and had responded: “Wording OK with me.”

Judge Chris Hughes, giving the written reasons for the tribunal’s decision to clear Cllr Beesley, rejected Ms Postings’ view of events.

He wrote of Cllr Beesley: “He had discussed the nature of his relationship with the monitoring officer who, with full knowledge of the relevant facts, had advised him. He had followed that advice.”

Cllr Beesley told the Daily Echo: “It was surprising that the crucial emails were not included by the monitoring officer in the bundle. That was left to me to find, which proved beyond any doubt the truth to what I’d been saying in my witness statement.

“It’s a very serious matter that she excluded those emails from the bundle. That is something that will need to be investigated.

“As my barrister said on the day, her position was then and is now untenable.”

Ms Postings attracted controversy last year when details emerged of the way in which she and chief executive Pam Donnellan initially handled the discovery that porn had been viewed on the laptop of then council leader Cllr Stephen MacLoughlin. The two sought to deal with the issue in private and it was only months later that details emerged.

In the case of Cllr Beesley, however, Ms Postings took the issue to the council’s standards committee and the issue was taken to a national tribunal.

The cost to the council is likely to run into tens of thousands of pounds, while Cllr Beesley spent £20,000 in legal advice.

Council leader Cllr Peter Charon told the Daily Echo: “Clearly there have been a number of people who have been involved in this issue who I believe have some explaining to do, in terms of their conduct throughout the process, and I’ve no doubt that those issues will need to be investigated before too long.”

A statement from Mrs Donnellan said: “We have only just received the details of the tribunal’s decision and we are currently reviewing the full details.”