A GROUP of parish councillors have been told to 'leave their politics at the door' during an emotionally charged and sometimes angry meeting.

Maryport Town Council called an extraordinary general meeting, held on Thursday night, after a co-opted councillor was found to be ineligible for the role just four minutes before a regular council meeting.

Independent councillor Iain Geaney immediately called for the extraordinary meeting, at which he accused Labour members of bias.

He said seven Labour councillors voted for a non-UK citizen and non-eligible candidate to be co-opted onto Maryport town council and so removing the opportunity for legitimate candidates to be elected.

He questioned why an eligibility form had not been signed sooner and why, when the town clerks realised the candidate was ineligible, they immediately reported it to a Labour member rather than the whole council.

Clerks, Paul Bramley and Lisa Douglas, said they discovered the situation just before a meeting was due to start last month and immediately informed the chairman of the next committee meeting due to be held.

“We would have notified anyone who was chairman at the time,” Mr Bramley said.

He said when the positions were advertised, the wording asked that people qualified to serve as councillor should apply.

“We have now changed the forms we will send out in future and will include the eligibility questions there.”

Cllr Greaney questioned why Labour councillor Stephen Ashworth had invited Labour members to apply to be co-opted and was then, also, a member of the co-opting panel.

Cllr George Mitchell also suggested that at least four application letters had almost identical opening paragraphs, which would seem to indicate that the candidates had been given letters to send in.

The independents called for the co-option panel and the recent co-options to be null and void.

The council came to a unanimous agreement, at the end of the meeting, however, to adopt the new forms as set out by the clerks and to check both the open and closed electoral roles to ascertain eligibility of future candidates.

Prior to that, long-serving councillor Carni McCarron-Holmes said:  “There are lessons to be learned here tonight. All of you sitting here, if you want this council to go forward, accept what happened and let it go.

“If you want to nitpick, I can nitpick. What happened is about confusion, not fraud.”

Mayor Linda Radcliffe, who was obviously upset and angry, said she would not allow any attack on the clerks who went 'above and beyond' in their duty to the council and the town.

She added: “I suggest you leave you political hats locked in your cars before you come in here. We are here, as a group, to help the people of Maryport, not to try and win political points.

“It was as much a shock to me as anyone else to discover, just minutes before a meeting, that one of the councillors we had co-opted was not eligible to stand.”

But she said the clerks immediately took action to ensure this could not happen in the future.

Cllr Colin Bell said the meeting had left him feeling uncomfortable and that, instead of taking sides, the council should be working together for Maryport.

Mrs Radcliffe agreed and said a parish council should be non-political.

“You represent the people of your ward, not your political party.

“We have to serve with honesty and integrity and put our political differences aside if we are to accomplish anything.”