POLICE are investigating an allegation that a grandmother and former teacher was assaulted at a meeting of Yarm Town Council on Tuesday evening.

A spokeswoman for Cleveland Police said the inquiry is at a very early stage.

Carole Jones, whose six-month ban from attending the town council meetings came to an end this week, went to the annual assembly meeting at the town hall just before 7pm to protest to councillors about a local issue.

She was removed from the meeting by town council clerk Terry Chapman and police have now received a complaint that she was assaulted.

She is alleged to have fallen down a number of the town hall steps during the incident.

Mr Chapman said he did not touch her, but turned her chair towards the door. He said she did not fall down the stairs.

“She turned up and refused to leave the meeting,” he said.

“I rotated the seat she was sitting in and swivelled it towards the door. I never laid a finger on her.”

A motion to ban Mrs Jones from meetings for a further 12 months was later passed by town councillors during the meeting, he said.

Mrs Jones is said to have received hospital treatment for leg and arm injuries on Tuesday night.

A spokeswoman for Cleveland Police said: “This matter was reported to us just after 7pm last night (Tuesday).

“We received a report that a woman was assaulted in the town hall.

“Police are investigating but inquiries are at a very early stage.”

Mrs Jones also made an allegation of assault following April’s meeting when she was escorted out.

But at that time police said because she was banned from meetings, then reasonable force could be used to evict her.

However, the ban had come to an end before the second motion was passed on Tuesday night.

Ms Jones has been an opponent of a memorial garden installed by the town council on Snaith’s Field in Yarm, which is an area of land bequeathed to the children of the town – and which she believes should have been entirely preserved for children to play in.

Mrs Jones even erected a tent on the field last year as a protest against efforts to build a garden to commemorate the soldiers from the town who returned home from the First World War.

The garden is now in place but the town council had originally promised to reconsider the placing of the garden after talks with descendants of the field’s former owners.

Mrs Jones also argued the memorial garden was "dangerous" within a children’s play area.