A LABOUR councillor has defended a Tory colleague by reporting a Liberal Democrat to an ethics watchdog.

The complaint, believed to be the first in Bromley, centres on comments attributed to Councillor Grace Goodlad on a political website.

Labour councillor Colin Willetts wrote to the Standards Board of England after the Lib Dem member for Orpington branded executive member for environment Councillor George Taylor a hypocrite.

The independent board was set up in March 2001 to investigate breaches of local authorities’ code of conduct on ethics and behaviour.

Cllr Goodlad makes the comment in a story entitled: “Lib Dem Councillor backs News Shopper campaign to clean up Bromley” on her party website.

It refers to the clean-up on Keston Common we organised after a political row broke out over the borough’s “clean and green” image.

Cllr Willetts said: “Making comments like this is not the way forward because it doesn’t allow Cllr Taylor any right of reply.

“If she wants to challenge him it should be in the council chamber. It doesn’t matter he’s a Conservative, it could happen to one of my Labour colleagues.” In her defence, Cllr Goodlad said: “I stand by what I said because the Conservatives were elected on a promise to keep Bromley clean and green and there is a lot of evidence to suggest this hasn’t happened.

“I am surprised because Cllr Taylor has not contacted me to request that I rescind the comments.” The complaint was lodged just over a week ago. However, it is unlikely to result in censure because the board has prioritised the cases it deals with after being flooded with allegations.

Last September, after the standards board had received its 1,000th complaint, chairman Tony Holland defended a decision not to investigate “trivial” matters as “common sense”.

He added: “For the first six months we looked at everything very carefully, which taught us we need to be able to start rejecting some cases at an early stage.” A spokesman added: “We cannot comment until the board has looked at it.” Cllr Taylor said: “I am distressed and upset to be personally attacked in this way.”