REMOVE the seats or demolish the whole market shelter if there is no other way of stopping Mel Bird using it. That was the advice given by members of the public to Leyburn Town Council on Monday.

Several older women attended the meeting, hoping to question Lady Bolton or Hazel Townsend about how Mr Bird had used the shelter since it was re-opened. Neither was there.

The women said he had allowed his dogs on to the seats again and was drinking alcohol in there. "It is the older people who don't have cars who suffer," said Mrs Diana Wink. "They won't go in when he is in there. He is abusive.

"If he was a man who needed something and came to my door, I would give to him. But he is not needy."

She suggested knocking the shelter down and someeone else told the councillors to remove the seats. "Then he couldn't sit in there and people could at least stand there and wait for buses."

The clerk read out two letters from residents, both angry with Mr Bird. One said: "He has monopolised the shelter, and whether his supporters agree or not, he does make the shelter a very distasteful place to be. I find this whole business quite distressing. I would not dream of treating my fellow men to such insults as this man does."

Coun Janet Green commented: "If he was just eccentric we wouldn't be worried."

Councillors said many people were standing outside the shelter, even in pouring rain, rather than share it with him.

But they decided to keep the gates open for the time being.

l Full town council report next week.