North Somerset Council's standards committee has cleared a Banwell parish councillor of any wrongdoing after complaints were made against him.

The committee examines the way in which the councillors behave when carrying out their duties in the district.

A complaint was brought against Banwell parish councillor Richie Griffin following accusations made by former Banwell deputy clerk, Gareth Jones.

Mr Griffin was accused of bringing the parish into disrepute by signing a false and misleading statement to the charity commission.

This concerned the signing of a form asking the commission to release £75,000 toward the Banwell recreation refurbishment project for the purpose of buying children's play equipment.

Mr Griffin was also accused in further allegations of failing to treat Mr Jones with respect and bullying him contrary to the Code of Conduct.

In addition claims were made by Mr Jones that Mr Griffin had accessed his email, demonstrating a breach of trust, and treated him with a lack of respect in front of the council, public and press.

Malcolm Nicholson, the former monitoring officer for North Somerset Council, produced a report on the case.

It states when Mr Jones suspected his emails were being read he brought in an IT expert to examine his computer.

The expert found Mr Griffin could see parish clerk emails, which included private emails with his bank details and made technical changes to prevent this.

After through investigation and interviewing witnesses Mr Nicholson exonerated Mr Griffin of all accusations.

Mr Nicholson said: "I have concluded that councillor Griffin has not brought the authority into disrepute regarding the application made to the charity commissioners.

"Councillor Griffin was not seeking personal advantage but was seeking to further the recreation ground project in good faith.

"In the absence of advice from the parish clerk or any other advisor, any failure to do so was not an intentional deception or improper behaviour. Therefore he has not brought the parish into disrepute by signing the form.

"I am, on balance, of the view that councillor Griffin was not guilty of bullying or failing to show respect to Mr Jones in the period September to December 2008."