POWYS council has been told to pay its former leader £250 as an apology for how it handled a complaint he had made to the council.

Barry Thomas, who was the council leader before retiring as a councillor at the 2017 county council elections, had complained about comments made during a council meeting, held in public, by former chief executive Jeremy Patterson.

Graham Brown, who served in the cabinet of independent councillors led by Mr Thomas, before also stepping down from the council at the 2017 elections, had also complained to the council and is also set to be offered the £250 payment.

The council has been told to make the payments at the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Nick Bennett, has said he was concerned at how the council had handled the complaint submitted by the two former councillors. It centred around comments made by Mr Patterson at an October 2017 council meeting where the authority discussed the highly critical report of its children’s services department issued by the Welsh care inspection agency.

Both Mr Thomas and Mr Brown, who had been a deputy leader, say they want their names "cleared". They had submitted their complaints to the ombudsman last year and their complaints upheld, in part, on December 21.

They have both spoken to the Local Democracy Service of the distress caused by comments made by former council chief executive, Mr Patterson, at the full council meeting on October 18, 2017.

At the meeting, Mr Patterson attempted to explain  the chronology of the issues that engulfed Children’s Services in 2016.

A hugely critical report from the Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) had just been published and at the meeting, Mr Patterson said that to deal with the issues in Children’s Services he needed “support” and “clarity” from the leader and deputies.

Mr Patterson claimed this was not forthcoming.

A few days later, he went off sick and then left the council in September 2018.

Former council leader, Mr Thomas, said: “All we want to do is clear our names.

“This was said at a council meeting which was webcast and we were not there to answer his claims. We were not given a right of reply.

“We have not accepted the £250 (one of the Ombudsman’s recommendations) yet as I thought that taking that money meant we were accepting the decision.”

Mr Brown, who was the cabinet member for children’s services in 2016, explained that he was working to make the changes needed to transform the service.

“He claimed there was a lack of leadership which is untrue,” said Mr Brown.

They first sent letters to PCC in November 2017 which were not responded to in a set time frame.

A meeting was suggested for March 12 (2018) but their solicitor could not make it, she wrote asking for another date, which did not materialise.

In July 2018, they submitted a formal complaint under the council’s procedures and were told it would be investigated by Clive Pinney, head of legal services and the authority’s monitoring officer.

Mr Brown added: “This was we objected as he would be basically investigating himself.

“It was looked into by Alison Bulman (director of Social Services) and was upheld.”

“We were told a meeting was being held with Jeremy (Patterson) but we heard nothing more and went to the Ombudsman.”

Mr Brown: “We have had an apology, but it’s in respect of the failure to respond to our complaint not what was said.”

As Mr Patterson has left the council they have been told that nothing more can be done.

A spokesman for Powys council said it had complied with the recommendations from the ombudsman’s report.

The ombudsman made four recommendations as he said the way the council had responded to their complaints had been "unacceptable".

They were to offer an apology in writing for the delay in investigating their complaints; to offer £250 as as redress for the complaint handling delays and communication failings; offer a written apology to the solicitors for failing to reply to a letter and to provide a meaningful update to the pair and their solicitors with a timeline for concluding the investigation.

In the report by the Ombudsman, Mr Thomas and Mr Brown are known as A and Z, while Mr Patterson is only known as a “senior officer”.