A COUNCILLOR has hit back at claims he shouted sexist comments towards a woman during a heated meeting.

Kevin Cranney, vice-chairman of regeneration services at Hartlepool Borough Council, is alleged to have asked the woman "have I slept with you?" at the meeting discuss the loss of services at the University Hospital of Hartlepool.

The accusation is being investigated by by the council. The police have spoken to both the woman involved and Councillor Cranney but are taking no further action.

People in the audience at the meeting, at Hartlepool Town Hall last Thursday, were upset that councillors had decided against holding a referendum on the issue of the hospital and the crowd became rowdy, with 'Labour Out' being chanted from the floor.

The woman at the centre of the story, a grandmother who has lived in the town all her life, said she told the Labour councillor, who is up for re-election in May, she knew him from many years ago.

She added: "That was all I said, and he said, 'have I slept with you?'

"He actually said it twice and he told me to f-off. He was also saying he didn't need our 'sh***y votes'. I complained to the chief executive that he should be suspended from the council for gross misconduct."

Cllr Cranney defended himself saying that, in fact, he had been abused by the "confrontational woman" and other members of the crowd. He has been dealing with the recent death of his mother and looking after his elderly father.

He said: "There were people wishing I was dead, and someone shouted out they would dance on my grave. It was targeted right at me. My wife has been really upset over this, she can't go to meetings because of the abuse.

"I didn't say what I'm accused of. It was more like 'what's the problem? You'd think I'd slept with you.'

"I was trying to say that you'd think she was an ex-girlfriend, because the abuse was personal like that. Outside there was someone trying to physically attack me, he had to be restrained. It's political because I'm one of the councillors up for election."

Cllr Cranney denied making the "sh***y votes" comment, but confirmed he did say he wasn't concerned about whether the people in the auditorium voted for him.

A Hartlepool Council spokesman confirmed it has received a number of email complaints in relation to comments allegedly made by Cllr Cranney following last Thursday’s extraordinary council meeting.

He said: “These are currently being dealt with by Chief Solicitor Peter Devlin in his role as the authority’s Monitoring Officer and in line with arrangements for handling complaints adopted by councils under the terms of the Localism Act.

Cleveland Police were contacted for comment but had not responded as The Northern Echo went to press. However, both Cllr Cranney and the woman at the centre of the story both confirmed they had spoken to police and both said they were informed no further action would be taken.