TWO misconduct complaints have been dropped against a Bradford councillor.

Councillor Paul Cromie, who sits as an independent for the Queensbury ward, said: “There was nothing to answer. It was a load of rubbish, a whole load of rubbish.”

The first complaint emerged back in March, when the Council’s Conservative leader, Councillor Simon Cooke, wrote to the authority’s city solicitor, alleging that Cllr Cromie had “consistently put effort into undermining” two former Conservative councillors, Lisa Carmody and Michael Walls, which had contributed in part to Ms Carmody’s decision to resign as a councillor.

But he did not then go on to fill in the official complaint form.

The second complaint was lodged in May by a member of the public, who claimed that Cllr Cromie had used “verbal abuse and offensive language” at a meeting of the Queensbury Ward Partnership.

But Cllr Cromie has now been informed that a member of Council staff had investigated the matter and come to the conclusion that no further action should be taken.

He welcomed the decision, saying: “The monitoring officer had spoken to two people who were at that meeting and they said they didn’t know what all the fuss was about and I hadn’t done anything wrong.

“The fact was, I wasn’t talking about anybody individually, I was talking about Facebook and I used the word ‘s***’ for what is going on there.

“To be honest with you, I have been doing these ward partnership meetings for a while, I’m in my 12th year, and I have never had any problems, except in the last year and four months.”

He said the accusations had not upset him, adding: “I have got broad shoulders. I have got skin like a rhinoceros. It makes no difference to me but I’m a Christian and I believe in the truth.

“Jesus said to tell the truth all the time, ‘Truly I tell you’. That’s how it should be, but it’s not.”

Cllr Cooke said he had not filled in the paperwork for his complaint because Ms Carmody had not wanted to pursue the matter.

He said: “Lisa’s moved on. They are moving, or have moved, to Ireland which is one of the reasons why she came off Council.”

But Cllr Cooke said it was a good opportunity for all elected councillors to consider how best to conduct themselves, particularly at public meetings.

Bradford Council was approached for comment but had not responded at the time of going to press.