Deputy mayor of Hadleigh Council resigns - calls for fresh elections

Hadleigh Guildhall, home of the town council. Photo: Keith Bailey (Image: Keith Bailey)

It comes as the council looks to bring in mediators to resolve disputes between councillors which have led to the suspension of its neighbourhood plan.

As reported in today's EADT, the clerk suspended work on Hadleigh's neighbourhood plan last summer.

Mediators are now going to be brought in to try to resolve disagreements between councillors about the way the plan was being drawn up.

But Bill Wilson said he had little faith in that process as he handed in his letter of resignation on Friday.

He claimed: 'I feel that I cannot work with a number of councillors due to their attitude and behaviour towards me, other councillors and members of the public.'

He added he had been accused of 'harassing and bullying' the town clerk because he and other councillors had questioned her authority to suspend the town's neighbourhood plan.

Mr Wilson, who has served on the council for three years, wrote: 'A council where the town clerk suspends a committee's work and cancels meetings without reference to the councillors is not a place I can, or wish, to work.' At the town council's meeting in January he again questioned the clerk's authority to suspend the neighbourhood plan working group.

In response, the clerk, Carol Bailey, has said she sought advice from Babergh District Council, before suspending the plan.

She also said she suspended the plan as allegations had been made to her by a confidential source that led her to believe that the council was being 'brought into disrepute'.

The neighbourhood plan is a document drawn up by councils about their areas' future development.