A council transport boss told a fellow councillor to stop talking about potholes at a public meeting – because a weekly newspaper journalist was present.

Welwyn and Hatfield Times chief reporter Paul Christian was attending a Hertfordshire County Council committee meeting when a council member voiced criticisms of a highways contractor, Ringway.

However after lambasting the company’s record on repairing potholes, Lib Dem councillor Malcolm Cowan was censured by highways and transport committee chairman, Stuart Pile.

Cllr Pile said to him: “Lots of parochial things there, is it an entirely appropriate thing to bring up with the press sitting here?”

The paper’s news editor Dave Burke told HTFP: “We were surprised about the committee chairman’s comments.  We always go along to meetings hoping to see open debate, so it was somewhat alarming to see a member told off for raising local matters because the press were there.

“Although the article was clear that Cllr Pile didn’t stop the opposition member from speaking, we hope the comment does not stifle politicians from any party raising matters they feel are of interest to the people they represent.”

The paper ran a story about the incident which has now led to a formal complaint against the newspaper from Cllr Pile.

However Dave said the paper was standing by its version of events, which he said was based on a verbatim note from Paul.

Cllr Pile told HTFP:  “To say that this article is inaccurate is an understatement. I did not say that “it was “inappropriate” to mention alleged failings by a highways contractor at a public meeting – because the WHT was present”.

“What I did say was that it was inappropriate for Cllr Malcolm Cowan to bring up detailed local matters which could not be answered by Ringway officers at the meeting, and that he should have brought them to my attention earlier.

“I also said that Cllr Cowan was only bringing them up because he knew that your reporter was in the room.  This was a deliberate smear tactic by Cllr Cowan in the face of a much improved highway repair situation.

“There is an election in May, and that undoubtedly means that sitting councillors and candidates will try and rubbish the current administration, but that does not mean that they can say things that are inaccurate or untrue.

“It also means that the local press will be anxious to report anything that is “news.”  However, what is reported should be accurate and true.  In this case what was reported was inaccurate and untrue.

At the meeting, Cllr Cowan had torn into Ringway’s record on filling in potholes in Welwyn saying some holes that were supposed to be sorted out within a week were taking seven times longer.

But Cllr Pile defended the contractor, saying it had made “considerable progress” in dealing with a backlog of road repairs.