Dartmouth's town councillors have been handed a formal warning over a flurry of secret meetings following last week's Guildhall sell-off decision.

The councillors have been told that any informal secret meeting has no power to make any decision – and the councillors could risk bringing their own council into disrepute.

And leading town councillor Dave Cawley backed up the warning saying: 'The last thing this council needs is a flurry of secret meetings and little trysts of clutches of selected councillors who want to manipulate future decisions.'

The official warning came in the shape of an email sent out to all 16 councillors by worried town clerk Chris Horan.

In it he declared: 'I am aware that several meetings have taken place among councillors and are taking place as a consequence of Monday night's meeting.

'While there is nothing wrong with this, I must caution you all that any consensus reached must be still be put before full council in order for it to be a collective decision by all members.

'Under no circumstances does a person or a group have authority to make changes without it being referred back to council, otherwise you are bringing the council into disrepute.

'If necessary, an urgent meeting can be called.

'Whether members consider that this is somewhat onerous is irrelevant, we must work within the law and the legislation laid down, or we will be acting illegally.'

Cllr Cawley warned: 'It is a sad day when five or six councillors decide that they are going to meet without telling other councillors that they are meeting, what they talking about and what has happened.'