A TORY councillor has been forced to write a letter of apology to one of his political rivals after it was deemed he had breached the council’s code of conduct.

Sefton Council’s standards committee told Cllr Martyn Barber to apologise to Cllr Peter Hough after an independent report by the Public Service Investigations found Cllr Barber, who represents Manor, guilty of two breaches of the council’s Code of Conduct.

At a heated council meeting last March over the retention of Anthony Gormley’s “Iron Men” statues on Crosby beach, Cllr Barber is alleged to have threatened Cllr Hough, who represents Victoria ward. He is alleged to have jabbed his finger at Cllr Hough and threatened: “You think you’ve got away with it but I’m going to get you for this. You wait and see – you’re going to pay for this.”

Last night, Cllr Barber said: "I am obviously delighted no further action is to be taken against me. I would like to say that I believe Conservative councillors are being unnecessarily reported to the Standards Board.”

He said the bill was likely to be more than £4,000 which was a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Cllr Hough said: “This inquiry would have been totally unnecessary, however, had Cllr Barber apologised in the days following the incident. If he had taken me aside and apologised that would have been the end of the matter.

“I hope now there's no reoccurrence of this behaviour, and I am allowed to concentrate, with my colleagues, on serv-ing Victoria ward.”