A weekly newspaper has been vindicated over its coverage of two councillors – including a council leader – breaching coronavirus regulations.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation has thrown out complaints by Samantha Hoy and Steve Tierney after the Wisbech Standard revealed they had received letters from police after meeting at a pub.

The Standard had published the story after obtaining a copy of the letter informing the councillors the force would “not be taking any formal action against you for this breach”.

The councillors, Tory members of both Fenland District Council and Wisbech Town Council, claimed they had not received a written warning from the police, as reported, but refused to confirm or deny to IPSO whether they had received the letter quoted by the Standard.

The press watchdog said their refusals had a “significant impact” on its ability to make a finding in regard to the accuracy, but backed the paper after it provided material to substantiate its position.

Complaining under Clause 1 (Accuracy) and Clause 9 (Reporting of crime) of the Editors’ Code of Practice, Councillor Hoy said that a written warning was a formal caution from the police, and she had never received one of these.

The leader of the town council also claimed she had not been given an adequate amount of time to respond to the Standard’s approach for comment.

Cllr Hoy, pictured, added it was not her place to confirm or deny whether she had received the letter quoted by the Standard when asked by ISPO.

In his complaint under Clause 1, Cllr Tierney said that he had never received a written warning from the police and did not commit any breaches of Covid-19 regulations on Christmas Eve 2020, as reported in the story.

He claimed he had not received a warning or caution from the police but did not confirm or deny whether he had received the letter.

Denying a breach of Code, the Standard said it was reasonable to describe the letter as a warning and stated the identity of the councillors had been confirmed by a senior source who had seen CCTV footage from the pub.

It added Cllr Hoy had rejected opportunities to comment prior to publication and did not respond to phone calls, but it had added in a statement from her post-publication.

IPSO found the Standard had a copy of the full letter and had made an FoI request to Cambridgeshire Police to establish how many individuals the letter was sent to.

In addition, a confidential source had confirmed which three councillors could be seen in the CCTV footage.

In light of the material provided by the Standard to substantiate its position and the councillors declining to provide further information, the Committee did not establish a significant inaccuracy requiring correction.

The complaints were not upheld, and the full adjudications can be read here.