THE deputy mayor of Newport has been asked to apologise after he said a small council was "beautiful like a woman - better to handle and provides an excellent service” - in a debate on a potential council merger with Monmouthshire.

Conservative councillor for Langstone, David Atwell made his comments in a debate on Tuesday at the Civic Centre.

But now he has been asked to apologise after other elected members found his remark inappropriate.

Cllr Atwell said in the meeting: “I will just state this for councillors. Small is extremely beautiful. It’s just like a woman – better to handle and provides an excellent service, just like our officers, staff and elected members of this city council. I suggest that we oppose [the merger] and stick to our guns and remain as we are and continue to fine tune our services.”

The chairman had to call for order as laughs and tuts broke out in the council chamber.

Rogerstone councillor Chris Evans said following the meeting: “We all say and do things that we regret. I recently raised my voice at a scrutiny subcommittee in the heat of debate and I have apologised, publicly.

“This isn’t about political correctness; sexism is simply not acceptable, full stop. I’m sure Cllr Atwell will do the right thing and apologise.”

Elected member for Maplas Jane Mudd said she was shocked by the comments – but more so by the reaction to them, with many councillors finding them funny.

She said: “I don’t believe they were meant to be offensive but I was offended by the comment and I was offended by the response. What actually compounds the impact of the statement is the fact that on the agenda we had actually been discussing the White Ribbon Campaign [against domestic violence]."

But she said she would not personally call for Cllr Atwell to apologise, saying it was a matter for the council as a collective.

Leader of the conservatives Cllr David Fouweather said whether or not Cllr Atwell apologised was a matter for him but added: “In these times of austerity, Labour councillors should be more concerned with budgets and not what is said in the chamber. I didn’t know he was going to say that. I think he just said it in the heat of the moment - it wasn’t intended to be offensive.”

Newport councillors rejected a voluntary merger with Monmouthshire County Council on Tuesday, as proposed by the Welsh Government. The plans could still be put into place without their approval.

Cllr David Atwell, who has been a councillor for the past 13 years, told the Argus the points about small being beautiful “like a woman”, and being easier to handle were two separate statements.

“(The councillors) didn’t say anything in the meeting, I’m speechless,” he said. “I had a job to complete the phrase because of the hysterical laughter coming from the opposite benches. I didn’t say a lot.

“If you look at the context it was the fact we were being encouraged by Welsh Government to be a much bigger outfit. What I was trying to illustrate is that as a small council, I think we provide an excellent service.

“I’m offended that they should think like that. I’m an innocent sort of guy and I was trying to soften the debate and illustrate my point.

“Maybe it was the way I delivered it. I regret upsetting anybody. I would’ve thought there were a lot of people in there who were upset they didn’t get their own way. Maybe they’re looking for a headline. They’ve gone too far and I’m quite offended by their reaction.”