Fed up district and county councillor Jonathan Hawkins has publicly said he wants nothing further to do with the 'in-fighting' and 'bickering' going on between Dartmouth town councillors.

Cllr Hawkins said he had been deluged with more than 20 emails over Christmas as councillors engaged in the latest internal row involving the council's traffic and parking group.

Now he has told the town council he wants to be taken off the email circulation list.

He told town councillors: 'I find it difficult trying to deal with the bickering between the councillors and members of that group. I would really like not to have any input into that.'

The latest row between councillors involved traffic and transport group chairman Roger Chilcott and Cllr Dave Cawley over the latest parking proposals for the town put forward by Devon County Council.

The flurry of emails, which also drew in other councillors and members of the traffic group, centred mainly on whether the parking issue had ever been on the group's agenda in the first place; why the meeting had been brought forward by an hour; and how the debate on parking had gone ahead after Cllr Cawley had left the meeting early.

Cllr Hawkins was speaking at this week's meeting of the town council as he gave his monthly county and district report.

He said he had simply ended up deleting all the emails that had ended up in his inbox as he said all he needed to know was the decisions made by the group. He added: 'I don't want to know all about the in-fighting of the group.'

The traffic and transport group was set up by the town council more than a year ago to look at how the town wants to handle its traffic and parking issues.

It was formed at the request of the county council following the town's rejection of proposals to bring in ticket machines in town centre. It is made up of town councillors and members of the public.