The government quango charged with protecting the seven Nolan Principles governing behaviour in public life is unlikely to heed Cornwall Council's request for an immediate review into stronger penalties for councillor misconduct, The MJ can reveal.

The news follows this week's decision by Cornwall Council to lobby ministers and officials for stronger powers to discipline councillors who breach its code of conduct.

This follows the inability of Cornwall's standards' board to suspend Cllr Collin Brewer after he was formally censured for making ‘outrageous and grossly insensitive' remarks about disabled children.

Cllr Brewer said that disabled children ‘should be put down' to reduce council expenditure on care and likened them to deformed lambs.

But under Cornwall's revised code of conduct, brought is as part of the Localism Act last year, the standards board were only able to formally censure Cllr Brewer, demand he make an apology, ensure he kept away from council facilities which involve the care of disabled children and underwent media training.

Cllr Loveday Jenkin, who recommended that the council should write to the government said there was great public concern about the limited punishments available to the authority.

‘While the majority of councillors do abide by these standards, it is vital that we have meaningful sanctions to deal effectively with those who commit serious breaches of the Code of Conduct,' she said.

The full council backed the proposal and Cllr Jenkin will also write to the Local Government Association to see if other councils would care to join Cornwall in seeking tougher sanctions.

Cllr Jenkin, Cornwall Council chairman John Wood, leader Cllr John Pollard will also pen a joint letter to the DCLG and the Committee on Standards in Public Life voicing the authorities concerns and suggesting reforms.

However, David Prince, interim chairman for the Committee on Standards in Public Life, told The MJ: ‘We'd want a year or so's run of cases to see just how big a problem this is.

Mr Prince said: ‘There may well be cases of inappropriate behaviour where the council can't take action.  The Committee will see how far the arrangements have worked and is likely to look at the issue in a year or 18 months time.'

The former chief executive of The Standards Board for England and Leicestershire CC said the committee would, in its usual way, collect data and take evidence from those involved to ascertain if there was a problem.

But Mr Prince added the Committee realised authorities are in a period of austerity and would be reluctant to recommend new legislation and bureaucracy unless there was a real problem.

‘If there were to be any changes – if the standards system is not delivering what the public expects, then we would need to see that any changes were proportionate and reasonable.

‘The acid test is how far they meet the test of public confidence,' Mr Prince added.