POLICE and crime commissioner Martin Surl has attacked Gloucestershire County Council after it refused to investigate a complaint about an election rival.

Council chiefs have ruled out a probe into the conduct of Will Windsor-Clive, who tried to unseat Mr Surl during last month's crunch PCC election battle.

Mr Surl had suggested Mr Windsor-Clive, a Conservative councillor, tried to exert 'undue influence' on the county's trading standards during during an investigation into Cotswolds haulage contractor Gordon Gilder Transport.

Mr Surl, who was backed up by Labour's PCC hopeful Barry Kirby, had claimed the tone of his emails suggested he might try and influence the force's chief constable inappropriately if he was elected.

But Jane Burns, the county council's director of strategy and change, says there will be no investigation.

Mr Surl said: "In my view, and in the view of many other well-qualified people there was a clear attempt to influence the behaviour of trading standards during an ongoing investigation.

"It is fundamental to the relationship between public bodies that there is a clear understanding of the standards we can expect from elected members, officers and staff."

Councillor Windsor-Clive, a farmer whose former county council role included responsibility for trading standards, had resigned his cabinet post in February to campaign in the election.

He has dismissed the row as a "political smear" and insisted he did nothing wrong.

The county council has released a statement confirming an investigation will not take place.

It said: "We deal with any complaints about county councillors using our procedures published on the website.

"Mr Surl made his complaint on 29th April, and we wrote back to him on 12th May saying that there wasn't enough information to support his allegations of a breach of the Code of Conduct.

"We did this in consultation with an appointed independent person and decided that no further action would be taken.

"Mr. Surl made more representations, which we took into consideration.

"We wrote back to him on 25th May to confirm the original decision stood and that the process was now finished."

Mr Windsor-Clive says one of his key roles as part of the county council's cabinet was to hold trading standards "to account on behalf of the public".

"That is exactly what I was doing in those emails, as I did hundreds of times whilst cabinet member," he said.

Mr Surl, an independent, was re-elected as Gloucestershire's commissioner with 78,592 first and second preferences last month, while Councillor Windsor-Clive finished runner-up on 51,567 votes.