THE retired Llandybie builder at the centre of a bitter planning row with the county council has called into question the role of one of the authority's planning officers during the decision to reject his application to renovate a dilapidated 200-year-old mill.

Nigel Humphreys, of 5 Penpound Lane, was ordered to pay £3,500 in fines and costs after being found guilty of making illegal alterations to the Grade II listed Felin Wen Mill in December 2007.

Mr Humphreys, aged 65, has been angered by the discovery that the planning officer who dealt with his case is an executive member of the Welsh Mills Society.

Mr Humphreys believes that planner George Griffiths' position should have precluded him from taking part in the decision-making process and then the council's prosecution case against him.

"For Mr Griffiths to be an executive member of the Welsh Mills Society and then be the lead officer deciding my application seems completely wrong, " said Mr Humphreys.

"According to the council's own Code of Conduct any officer with a non-pecuniary interest in a planning application should play no part in that application.

"As an executive member of the Welsh Mills Society it appears to me that Mr Griffiths must have a non-pecuniary interest in my application to renovate Felin Wen, which is of course a Welsh mill."

Mr Humphreys has also expressed concern as to why Mr Griffiths made no mention of his position with the Society in his statement to Llanelli Magistrates court during the prosecution of Mr Humphreys on January 26, 2008.

When those magistrates found in Mr Humphreys' favour, the council took their case to the Appeal Court, who asked magistrates to reconsider certain elements of their decision.

When the case was reheard, Mr Griffiths told the court he was a mill expert and had been a member of the Welsh Mills Society for 20 years and an executive member for six years.

Mr Humphreys has always maintained he carried out only emergency work to save the mill from imminent collapse.

The case is believed to have cost the council in excess of £100,000.

A spokesman for Carmarthenshire County Council said: "The council is aware that Mr Griffiths is a member of the Mill Society but does not consider it to have been a conflict of interest."