A COUNCIL chairman has hit back at an allegation that an election process was 'corrupted'.

The row emerged when a former member of Middleton St George Parish Council accused the authority of ignoring election rules while appointing a new co-opted member after a series of summer resignations hit the authority.

Alex Sinski raised concerns after claiming a member was co-opted onto the council despite putting his name forward nine days after the closing date.

However, the council has defended its decision to go ahead with the selection process after seeking advice on due process surrounding co-option of members.

During a tense meeting last week, Cllr Mike Wilson, the chairman of the council in the village near Darlington, was advised not to comment on the allegations but since then he has decided he wants to make public the council’s side of the story.

He said: “The was conducted in a proper manner after taking advice from Darlington Borough Council on procedures and I informed the members there were three candidates then asked if they agreed to appoint one member from those three names.

“All members present agreed and the dates of candidate’s nomination were all written in the minutes received by every member. This was then put to a private vote which turned out to be even numbers.

“Rules dictated that under these circumstances the chairman has a casting vote.

"I voted Ralph Goodchild who is well respected in the village, has lived in the Middleton St George for many years, and is known by some of the parish council as a person who has the best interest of the village at heart and felt he would work hard with the parish council.

“Although there were three vacancies on the parish council, rules meant that only one vacancy could be filled at that meeting with the other vacancies open to co-option at the next meeting.

“It would have been entirely legitimate for Mr Sinski to apply to be co-opted but he did not do so. I understand that he has now decided he wishes to stand which will result in a by-election.

“The £6,000 cost will have to be paid from parish funds which could have been used much more usefully and constructively for the local community.

“I have no idea what Mr Sinski’s motivation is for attacking the parish council in this manner. All the legal procedures were carried out in advertising the vacancies and nominations by Darlington council.”

Last week, Mr Sinski, who records most council meetings he attends, questioned the accuracy of the minutes of a previous meeting – which he alleges failed to record what actually happened on the night.

A letter of complaint was sent to the election monitoring officer, who is based at Darlington Borough Council, calling for an investigation into the election process.

A spokeswoman for the council confirmed that a complaint has been received and was being looked into.

Mr Sinski could not be contacted for comment.