A CONTROVERSIAL councillor has been re-elected as chair of Yarm Town Council two years after resigning - as the clerk stood down, making accusations of bullying.

Jason Hadlow, who resigned his seat on the council last year, won his place back in the recent elections, and fellow councillors from Yarm Residents Association (YRA) elected him as chair this week.

And he pledged to ask the police to investigate the circumstances surrounding the town council's decision to take Stockton Borough Council to the High Court over the introduction of parking charges in Yarm.

The town lost the case in 2012, after spending an estimated £40,000 on legal fees.

Meanwhile town council clerk Maureen Milburn, who was not present at this week's meeting, resigned her job after accusing councillors from the YRA of "bullying" in a letter read out to the meeting.

It emerged she had offered her resignation to former chair Peter Monck in March amid fears YRA representatives would win seats on the council in this month's election. But he said he had "not accepted" her resignation at that time.

Residents raised fears that funerals organised at Yarm's cemetery would be affected by the absence of a clerk, but Mr Hadlow said he was hoping to ask someone to do the job as an interim measure until the vacancy could be advertised and the place filled.

Mr Hadlow was elected as chair after receiving one more vote than Yarm Independent Society councillor Marjorie Simpson, who stood against him. He had stood down as chair in 2012, branding meetings a "farce", and later stood down as a town councillor.

Peter Roy, a local businessman, told this week's meeting: "I find it quite unsettling that someone who cost £60,000 to this town council over a parking fiasco is once again representing this town council.

"I said at the time you should fall on your sword, and if you couldn't do that a concrete penis would do."

He was referring to Mr Hadlow's curiosity shop, Simply Dutch in Leeming Bar, North Yorkshire, which caused controversy several years ago by displaying a four-ft stone phallus for sale. The item was seized and impounded by police after complaints that it was obscene.

In 2012, Mr Hadlow accused Councillor Simpson of punching him and spitting at him after a meeting, and reported her to police. The story made national headlines. But she denied the allegations, claiming he had intimidated her. Police dropped the investigation.

Mr Hadlow said after the meeting that he did not believe his appointment was controversial, and pledged to work proactively with fellow councillors for the best interests of Yarm.