TWO Minehead town councillors who resigned this week following continued controversy over the mayor’s expenses, are now pressing for his resignation.

Paul Bolton, who served two terms as mayor and was a key figure in the Independent take-over of the council from the Conservatives four years ago, resigned last Friday, followed on Tuesday by Emily Jones, who joined the council in 2021 at 18, and thought to be the youngest town councillor in the UK.

Both said this week that they would offer themselves for re-adoption if the current mayor, Cllr Andrew Kingston-James, agreed to stand down.

Mr Bolton said: “Cllr Kingston-James is not a fit person to be mayor of this town. We have had nothing but problems since he took office.

Cllr Kingston-James, currently on three months’ sick leave, was unavailable for comment.

Last week councillors approved a payment of £18,633 to the mayor for “administrative help and advice” during a three-year dispute with the authority’s former town clerk, Jenny Bashford, who after being suspended and dismissed, unsuccessfully took the council to an employment tribunal.

Mr Bolton said: “I can’t say the payment was completely unjustified but what I am saying is that there are people in this town at the moment who are having to make the choice between eating and heating and it is not acceptable to use that amount of taxpayers’ money in this way.

“When this dispute began, we agreed to pay the mayor an honorarium which we thought would be around £4,000 to £5,000, but it soon became obvious it was going to be a lot more than that.”

Mr Bolton claimed that when Cllr Kingston-James went to Bristol to attend the tribunal on the council’s behalf he was provided with £4,000 for hotel expenses.

He said: “This was not properly authorised. I questioned that money at the time and asked why the council wasn’t paying for his hotel directly but putting £4,000 into the mayor’s bank. I also questioned why he had to stay in a four-star hotel which was further away from the tribunal court than a Premier Inn which would have been a lot cheaper.”

Mr Bolton added: “When we had the hotel receipts we found the cheapest night involved £140 of room service expenses. When these matters were discussed at a later meeting I said that the mayor had spent more on food at his Bristol hotel on one night than I spend on keeping my family of seven for a week. How is that acceptable?”

“This council has now gone back to where it was four years ago. Some of us - me, Terry Venner, John Malin, Bryan Howe (then clerk) and everybody - have worked so hard to turn things round. All this work has simply gone down the pan. Originally Emily and I were going to stick with it and call for a vote of no confidence but it was decided that things had gone too far down the road for that.

“I had done over two years as mayor through the pandemic but if the council continues in the present direction I’m just not interested in getting involved. I don’t think Cllr Kingston-James is the right person to lead the council forward.”

Ms Jones told the Free Press: “There is no proper guidance or structure since the present mayor took over. “There is no leadership. You are told to say what you want and do what you want. If there was a different mayor I would offer to go back - I have really enjoyed being on the council and helping people.

“I resigned because I don’t want to go down with a sinking ship. When I joined the council things were working smoothly and I felt we were making real progress but now there is simply no communication. I’m still new to local government and I still need to learn and need leadership but under the present mayor it was simply not forthcoming.”

When asked to comment on the allegations made by the former councillors, Cllr Kingston-James, who is on three months’ sick leave, sent a message via Cllr Mark Kingston-James, reading: “Andy is still off-duty. Please direct all inquiries through the main office.”

A reply from the town council stated: “Regarding your email, the town council will not be dealing with this issue as it’s a private subject.”