MIDDLEWICH Town Council will discuss next Monday whether or not it acted legally in its investigation of a former member.

David Williams was suspended from all committee meetings and banned from directly contacting Jonathan Williams, Middlewich town clerk, in December 2016.

It followed an investigation by the town council’s personnel committee into the former councillor’s behaviour towards the clerk.

The committee referred the matter to an independent HR consultant, but following a landmark legal ruling involving another town council, David now believes the outcome was unlawful.

At last month’s town council meeting, David said: “A judicial review, heard in the High Court, found that similar actions by Ledbury Town Council breached the Localism Act 2011 and therefore were found to be unlawful.

“If you wish to Google the case, R Harvey v Ledbury Town Council, you will see that it is very similar to what was done to me by Middlewich Town Council.

“I am requesting that the clerk investigates whether the town council has acted lawfully, how much council tax payers’ money was spent on an unlawful investigation and what legal advice the council received to justify not abiding by the Localism Act 2011.”

David represented Cledford as a Labour town councillor from May 2015 until resigning last March.

In R Harvey v Ledbury Town Council judges ruled that the council had breached the Localism Act 2011 by suspending the member despite not being advised by Herefordshire Council’s monitoring officer to do so.

The town clerk agreed to investigate the matter and write to David with his findings.

Cllr Mike Hunter, Labour, has put the matter on to the agenda for next Monday’s meeting by submitting a members’ item calling on the town council to ‘immediately do the right thing’ if it did act unlawfully.