A councillor is to be reprimanded for leaking a confidential report into the behaviour of a suspended council chief.

Councillor Olive Woodall admitted she had passed the report into the conduct of disgraced Eastbourne council chief executive Sari Conway to another person because she believed they had a right to see it.

After being suspended for a year on her full salary of £72,000, Mrs Conway was sacked after a damning report by Government inspector Rodney Brooke found her guilty of gross misconduct.

It said she had bullied colleagues and concluded her aggressive management style had destroyed working relationships.

Councillors were given the chance to read the report before attending a meeting to decide Mrs Conway's future but were sworn to secrecy about its contents.

At a meeting of Eastbourne Borough Council's standards committee, it was recommended Coun Woodall be officially reprimanded and removed as chairman of the cross-council policies scrutiny committee.

The Liberal Democrat councillor did not attend the meeting.

She said she stood by her actions and felt leaking the document was the right decision.

She said: "It was widely thought the media had got hold of the report and I wanted to warn this person it was possible he might be asked for a comment as his name was mentioned.

"I did this hours, not days, before the meeting about Sari Conway so I thought it would be a safe enough margin not to matter.

"I think the report was in the public interest because taxpayers' money was being spent on paying her wages while she was suspended.

"In my view I have no reason to stand down, I was doing what I felt was right. Now the saga is over I think we should all look to the future, not the past."

Bob Lacey, Tory councillor and deputy leader of the council, said: "I think the matter was quite extraordinary.

"She should consider resigning because nobody will have any confidence or trust in her in the future.

"If something is in the public interest and there's a conspiracy of silence then there's justification for leaking a document but this was not the case."

Lib Dem councillor Neil Stanley said: "Coun Woodall was careless to have left a confidential report lying around but she admitted to doing so. We have been transparent about the matter."