A STANDARDS committee has cleared a former Hampshire mayor of bringing the planning process into disrepute.

Councillor Kevin Ault was accused of breaching the code of conduct over a planning application for 12 homes.

A resident opposed to the development made two allegations that he failed to declare meetings with objectors and the developer's architect before he went on to back the successful application.

New Forest District Council's standards committee accepted an investigator's report that cleared Cllr Ault.

The committee said Cllr Ault, a former mayor of Lymington, made a "genuine mistake'' when he denied at a Lymington Town Council meeting had met the architect for the Waterford Lane scheme, when in fact he had.

Chairman Alex Lander said: "The committee accepts there is no evidence that Cllr Ault was seeking deliberately to mislead or to confer an advantage or disadvantage, and he took steps to remedy the mistake he had made by meeting the objectors later."

He went on to say having declared his interest as a town councillor at the planning meeting in May there was "no obligation to explain his contacts with the architect or the objectors."

Investigator Alexander Ruck Keene had said the contacts were not "over and above'' those normally expected during the course of a planning application and did not need to be disclosed under the codes.

The standards committee said it would recommend to the planning committee that interests were declared before each application rather than the start of the meeting.

Asked for his reaction to the result Cllr Ault said: "I have no comment to make and hope the matter is now finally closed."

Cllr Ault quit as mayor in August and was replaced by his deputy Pauline Elsworth.

He resigned after failing to get support for the way the council conducted its business.