A ROSSENDALE councillor is facing censure after claiming expenses from a care trust for the elderly in the valley.

Coun Alan Neal, who represents Community First in Healey and Whitworth, was the subject of a standards panel investigation over his conduct as a trustee of Whitworth Elderly Care Trust.

Councillors were told that there was a sufficient link between his role as a borough councillor and his work as a trustee so it could be ‘reasonably perceived’ he was acting in his role as a councillor.

He is said to have claimed expenses from the trust ‘without prior authorisation’, which it was not that organisation’s responsibility to pay.

In a report by monitoring officer Stuart Sugarman, it is said: “Expenses were claimed from a charitable organisation with a limited budget and concerns were expressed at the length of time it had taken Councillor Neal to repay the funds to the trust.”

The standards panel has ruled that Coun Neal had breached the council’s code of conduct by bringing his office into disrepute.

Under the sanctions to be imposed on Coun Neal, the panel decided a letter of censure would be imposed. And he must attend a training session with the monitoring officer.

Coun Neal has also been urged, although this is not within the panel’s powers, to write a letter of apology to the trust.

The panel’s finding is not the first time that Coun Neal, of Tonacliffe Road, Whitworth, has been rebuked by the council’s standards board.

In early 2009, while representing Healey and Shawforth as an independent, he was temporarily suspended for sending ‘an email with inappropriate content in the course of council business, which detailed an unsupported allegation agai- nst council officers’.

Coun Neal was unavailable for comment.