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The Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Peter Tyndall, has come under fire in recent months following a series of high-profile cases.

They include Cardiff councillor John Dixon - who was referred for calling Scientology "stupid" on Twitter - and Swansea councillor Rene Kinzett - for saying some members of his authority were "past it".

Both complaints were made under Section 4 of the code of conduct which requires councillors to show "respect and consideration for others".

In both cases the Ombudsman decided that the remarks warranted the men appearing before their council's Standards Committees. And in both cases the Standards Committee decided to take no further action.

The Liberal Democrat AM and Swansea councillor Peter Black says that such decisions have made a "laughing stock" of the Ombudsman.

He also fears that the code of conduct and the Ombudsman is being used by individuals to "sanitise debate" within Welsh local government and wants to see the whole system reformed.

"What we have at the moment is not fit for purpose. It's actually bringing down the reputation of politics by turning it into petty back-biting and complaints when we should be serving a higher purpose and working on behalf of our constituents."

"It's actually preventing councillors of doing their job of robust scrutiny and holding the administration to account and unless we reform it, it will continue to deteriorate."

Over the last two years the number of code of conduct complaints made to the Ombudsman has surged by more than 50% - up from 230 in 2007/08 to 352 in 2009/10 - with the most common complaints relating to "equality and respect".

While only a small proportion of complaints are taken on by the Ombudsman, the increasing number and type of cases is of concern to Steve Thomas, chief executive of the Welsh Local Government Association.

"Clearly the weight of vexatious work going into the Ombudsman's office at the moment is a great concern."

"The Ombudsman rejects about four-fifths of the inquiries that he has because it does get very childish, if gets very pernickety and it can get very vicious. What the code has done is accidentally, partly encourage that."

But the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales, Peter Tyndall, denies that the way his office operates is potentially damaging debate in council chambers.

"I certainly wouldn't want to form any part of a gag on free speech and I believe that the code doesn't do that."

"In the current year - since we issued guidance on the Code of Conduct - we've seen a decline in cases - a decline of 20% - which we're very pleased about."

"I would hope that as Standards Committees and Monitoring Officers become more effective in advising members and as the guidance becomes more familiar to members, that we will see a continuing decline."