A LIBDEM councillor who used council facilities to boost his party’s election campaign has been censured by the standards watchdog.

Tim Brett, who leads the LibDem group on Fife Council, broke the Councillor’s Code of Conduct to drum up help in an email bungle just days before last year’s local elections.

Brett, who has served the Tay Bridgehead area since 2003, used his council computer and email account to ask for help to distribute party political election leaflets in contravention of official rules.

Yesterday the Cupar man was censured by the Standards Commission for Scotland at a public hearing in Glenrothes. The watchdog found that Brett’s actions had been “an inadvertent mistake rather than a deliberate attempt to exploit his position”.

The panel heard the help call was made in a chain of emails sent to the chair of a community trust about other issues, and that the councillor, convener of Fife’s Scrutiny Committee, has apologised.

Lindsey Gallanders, chair of the hearing panel, said: “While in this case the hearing panel acknowledged the councillor’s position that his actions were the result of an inadvertent mistake, it is nevertheless important that we hold him to account.

“While the hearing panel are pleased to note Councillor Brett accepts he breached the code and has apologised for doing so, it nevertheless considers that he should have been aware of the prohibition in the code in respect of using council facilities for party political or campaigning activities.

“He should have taken extra care to avoid doing so, particularly given the proximity of the local government and general elections.”

There are seven LibDems on Fife Council, which is run by an SNP-Labour administration.