COUNCIL tax payers are to pick up an estimated £45,000 bill after a town clerk was wrongfully dismissed over a £40 photocopying blunder.

Town clerk Leanne Plant was awarded £12,500 damages yesterday after being sacked by Thornaby Town Council for allowing the authority's independent group to photocopy some pre-election leaflets.

The council must now pay compensation - as well as foot the entire legal bill, which is estimated to be well in excess of £30,000.

The "expensive cock-up" finally came to an end yesterday when the town council agreed to settle with the mother-of-three prior to a tribunal hearing to decide the payout.

It came two-and-a-half years after the photocopying incident - and after the council was given earlier opportunities to settle for less.

In September last year, Miss Plant offered to settle for £4,000, but lawyers advised she would probably have accepted £2,500.

Yesterday, members of Thornaby Independent Association (TIA) called for the town's Labour members to resign and said it had been handled badly from the start.

Independent Councillor Tina Large said: "This whole thing has been down to political in-fighting and there has been a large cost to the tax payers, so there should be resignations.

"An argument over £40 has cost the council more than £40,000."

Miss Plant, 30, had always maintained she had done nothing wrong, saying she charged the independents the going photocopying rate.

The Labour group claimed the council had been under-paid by £500 and said Miss Plant had acted underhand.

She was sacked following a disciplinary hearing, but auditors for the Standards Board for England said the council may have been underpaid by just £40.

In February, an employment tribunal ruled that Miss Plant's sacking had been wrong and "politically motivated".

Miss Plant, of Vulcan Way, Thornaby, said she was pleased with the payout and was now planning a family holiday.

"I always knew I had done nothing wrong," she said. "Everybody used the photocopier all the time, so this was no different.

"I only wish I had fought it from the beginning - I may have kept my job."

Miss Plant said she was originally offered only £1,000 by the council, provided she admitted she had done wrong.

But yesterday, as part of her settlement, she was also given a glowing job reference.

Roger Mosley, a TIA member, said: "This has been one very expensive cock-up."

Chairwoman of the council, Labour councillor Beryl Robinson, said the council had enough money to pay the damages and legal costs within the given six-week period.

She said she could not remember why the council had not settled earlier, but said members had always done the best they could.

"I will not resign," she said.

"I have stood in the middle of this as chairwoman and I have not taken sides."

She added: "I've learned that an ordinary person taking on the responsibility of being a town councillor is not as easy as it sounds. It's not all about drinking tea and nattering over a table.