The mayor of Blackwood has blasted a Caerphilly County Borough Council plan to reject his nomination to its standards committee.

A majority of councillors agreed on Tuesday June 30 to start an internal selection process for the role, 18 months after it was first advertised.

A liaison committee representing the borough’s town and community councils had nominated Blackwood town councillor George Etheridge for the committee vacancy, but the matter has been deferred twice since November.

Initially, it was delayed over an alleged complaint regarding the councillor – which was never escalated – and later the council said candidates had failed to produce ‘pen portraits’ before votes were cast.

At Tuesday’s meeting, several Labour councillors who also sit on town or community councils said they hadn’t been made aware of the appointment process last year.

But following the meeting, Cllr Etheridge, an independent, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service he had seen evidence that the vacancy was sent to each of the borough’s town and community council clerks in January 2025.

He said he had “serious concerns” about the council’s handling of the matter and alleged “inaccurate claims” had been made at the meeting.

The ongoing refusal to accept the town and community council liaison committee’s nominee risked “eroding trust”, he added.

Cllr Etheridge said he would write to the council’s chief executive and monitoring officer to outline his concerns about the process.

During the council meeting, independent councillor Janine Reed noted the appointment of Cllr Etheridge was first deferred because of a complaint, but the matter was never escalated to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.

Monitoring officer Robert Tranter refused to share the details of the complaint and would not say whether it came from a councillor or a member of the public.

“Democracy depends on accepting the result, even when it isn’t the one you wanted,” Cllr Reed told the meeting. “Changing the rules after the votes have been counted isn’t good governance.”

Blackwood ward independent councillors Nigel Dix and Andrew Farina-Childs also questioned the council’s handling of the matter.

Cllr Dix said he was “confused why it has been deferred for so long”, while Cllr Farina-Childs said the nomination row risked showing “no respect” to the borough’s town and community councils.

But Labour councillors Carl Cuss, Dawn Ingram-Jones, Lisa Phipps and Walter Williams all told the meeting they – at their respective town or community councils – were unaware of the original nomination process.

Cllr Bob Owen warned that colleagues should check their records before making claims about matters from 18 months ago, however.

Following the meeting, the local authority is to set up a new selection panel to interview candidates for the committee vacancy.