Bridgend council has 28 days to appeal against the order

The Information Commissioner - the watchdog for the Freedom of Information Act - ordered the council to release an inspection of the Heronston Hotel.

But the council did not agree with the finding, claiming it raised concerns about its duty to protect the public.

The hotel said it was an innocent party in the dispute with nothing to hide.

It began in January 2005, when an unnamed person made a request to the council under the new Freedom of Information Act (FoI), asking for a copy of the last hygiene inspection report for the Heronston Hotel.

The council refused, and after an appeal, the complainant took the case to the Information Commissioner.

The hotel said it was fully compliant with food hygiene regulations

Earlier this month the commissioner ruled that the council should disclose the report, saying that a growing number of other councils routinely publish food hygiene inspection reports on their websites after requests under the FoI act.

But it has now emerged that the council is still not making the report available. In a statement, the council said:

"While the authority appreciates the the public's right to access certain information, we have serious concerns about how this decision will affect our duty to protect the public".

A spokesman for the Information Commissioner's Office in Wales said it believed this report should be in the public domain and the council had 28 days to appeal against the order.

If the council does appeal, the next stage would be an information tribunal.

Meanwhile the Heronston Hotel said it had "no issue" with the council releasing the report and was fully compliant with hygiene regulations.

"We are the innocent party in something that is nothing to do with us," manager Carolyn Powell said about the dispute. She said she felt it was up to the council to release the report.

Exemption claimed

Food hygiene standards have been the subject of a number of other FoI requests to Bridgend council in recent months following the E.coli poisoning outbreak in south Wales which led to the death of a five-year-old boy and the infection of 167 other people.

The council has refused to release to the BBC details of food hygiene inspections at John Tudor and Son of Bridgend, the butcher at the centre of the E.coli investigations.

In response to those requests, the council claimed an exemption under the freedom of information legislation because of the ongoing criminal investigation following the death of five-year-old Mason Jones.