AN inquiry has cleared councillors in Tony Blair's County Durham constituency after allegations of bullying and boozing, the Northern Echo can reveal.

But the Standards Board for England, which regulates council behaviour, said last night that ten more investigations into the conduct of members of Sedgefield Borough Council are ongoing.

But details of four inquiries which have resulted in no action being taken have been released.

Three of the completed investigations relate to former leader Brian Stephens, who lost his seat in the last local government elections.

Mr Stephens denied all the allegations and the board found insufficient evidence of a breach of the code of conduct in all but one, relating to a family fun day he organised in August 2002.

The board's ethical officer discovered that the council did not charge for the hire of its field or leisure centre used for the fun day, despite it being a Labour Party event.

A summary of the investigation said: "Councillor Stephens did breach the code of conduct by using the council's resources for party political purposes."

But because there was no evidence he acted in bad faith or against council requirements, the board felt this was a minor breach that did not bring the council into disrepute.

An anonymous complaint that Mr Stephens bullied employees to the point of resignation, ill health or redundancy was unproven, despite some evidence that he "behaved inappropriately in the council environment".

A similar allegation against former deputy leader Fred Chaplin, who stood down at the last election, was also unsupported.

A claim that Mr Stephens organised a "pay-off for his incompetent friend, a council officer, so he could retire on a blown-up pension" was found to be groundless.

And allegations that he behaved in a disrespectful way to a council officer, marginalised him and tried to "get shot" of him after criticising one of his proposals were also dismissed for a lack of evidence.

The board has also looked into an anonymous claim that Mr Chaplin drank council-supplied whisky in his office every afternoon, became abusive and drove home under the influence.

But they found no proof to support the complaint, although there was evidence that he drank whisky at the council on a fairly regular basis until eight months before he stood down.