Dartmouth councillors have decided to rewrite the official public record of the meeting involving the alleged bullying clash between mayor Paul Allen and his own town clerk.

Cllr Allen is currently under investigation by the local council monitoring officer over the accusations that he bullied town clerk Chris Horan by refusing to allow him to give important financial advice to the councillors during last month's council meeting.

The minutes of the meeting – written and confirmed by both the clerk and deputy clerk - originally spelled out what had happened by declaring: 'The clerk attempted to provide information in his role as responsible finance officer and proper officer but was denied the right to speak.'

But some town councillors declared that the statement was just too contentious to stay in the minutes – which are always kept as the permanent record of what happens at a council meeting and what decisions are made.

Cllr Allen suggested that the words should be removed altogether while someone clarified the situation.

But in the end it was decided to change the words so that in instead of being 'denied the right to speak' the clerk was simply 'not permitted to speak'.

The move enraged some councillors who spoke out against any decision to change the words. Veteran town councillors and former mayor Debbie Morris declared: 'I recall standing up to say that you were out of order by denying the proper officer the ability to speak and it was reported in press – accurately.'

Mr Horan had been attempting to give financial advice to the councillors over their decision to hand over £150,000 to the Dartmouth swimming pool trust and commit another £10,000 a year over the next ten years to the new pool's running costs when he was told he could not speak by Cllr Allen.

Cllr Allen was reported to the South Hams Council monitoring officer for allegedly bullying the clerk and the 'charge' is currently being investigated by an independent solicitor.

A number of councillors and the clerk were due to be interviewed by the legal expert this week.

The town councillors eventually agreed to change the wording of the minutes by eight votes to four with three councillors abstaining.

Town councillor David Gent suggested the new wording, claiming the previous statement had been 'pejorative' – which means derogatory or uncomplimentary.

Cllr Allen went further as he told the council meeting: 'I suggest that these three lines are taken out of these minutes and it comes back for clarifications.'

And town councillor Chris Smith declared: 'It is not my recollection that that is a true record of what happened and I believe it should be removed from the minutes.'

Andy Carter suggested that the wording was somehow 'suspended' until after the mayor's investigation had been completed but was told that was not possible.

Les Barnes suggested that the wording should remain the same but that the council should include both his comments and those of Cllr Morris when they had suggested that the mayor had been 'out of order'.