Dartmouth's former deputy mayor Dave Cawley has accused his fellow councillors of trying to hush up a council bullying row by steam rolling through a vote of no confidence in him.

Cllr Cawley was told he was not a team player and had brought the town council into disrepute as the councillors supported the no confidence vote by 11 votes to four.

Town councillor Steve Smith – who had brought forward the controversial motion – was not given the opportunity to explain what his complaints were about. And Cllr Cawley was given no opportunity to defend himself as councillors insisted on voting on the accusation without any debate at all.

After the meeting Cllr Cawley said it had been 'ludicrous' that he had not been able to speak in his own defence.

And he claimed that the town councillors who supported the no confidence vote did not have enough information to make an informed decision in the first place.

He said that as far as being a team player went his attendance record for council meetings was greater than most councillors – and certainly greater than that of Cllr Smith, who had brought the complaint against him.

And he said that as there had been no explanation about bringing the council into disrepute he believed it could only have been centred on two things – his support of the town clerk's desire to retire on compassionate grounds and his decision to report mayor Paul Allen to the monitoring officer for bullying the clerk.

'I am disappointed because the council did not have the infor-mation to make an

informed choice.

By going along with it they appear to be saying it is not OK to report the mayor for bullying.

'It's going to look as if they feel it is OK to bully staff and it should be hushed up. That's what they are saying, in my view.'

Cllr Cawley had demanded a recorded vote and the town councillors who supported the no confidence vote were new mayor Paul Allen, deputy mayor Rob Lyon, Hayley Rundle, Roger Chilcott, David Gent, Joanna Gaukroger, Steve Smith, Felicity Smith, Chris Smith, Andy Carter and Francis Hawke.

The councillors who voted against were Debbie Morris, Dave Cawley, Les Barnes, Tessa de Galleani while Robin Springett

abstained.

Cllr Cawley said he was not worried about the vote and that it would not affect his work on the council in any way.

'I shall continue to be a team player as I have always done and I will continue to uphold the rights of the staff not to be bullied.'