PARISH councillors have vowed to get back to business after nine months of rowing over the sacking of their clerk.

Stanhope Parish Council agreed this week to pay Val Ward the £2,686 awarded for unfair dismissal by an employment tribunal in Newcastle.

Members heard that Mrs Ward's request to work 20 hours a week instead of ten would have cost the council nearly £11,000 a year, more than half its £20,000 precept.

This would rise to more than £11,000 in 2006/7 and £11,705 in 2007/8. She was earning £7.20p an hour for ten hours a week but, last April, raised the issue of a national employment agreement which, she said, should be implemented as a condition for achieving Quality Status.

Councillor Richard Mews said in a report to the council: "The increased payments would have had to be made out of council reserves, which are earmarked for children's play parks and restoring war memorials.

"The finance committee didn't accept the clerk's proposals but recommended that her hours should be increased to 15 hours.

"The majority of councillors did not want to do this but were trying to be reasonable."

He said that three councillors, himself, John Shuttleworth and Angela Bolam, had shared the clerk's work, saving £1,950.

He said: "This just about covers the cost of the compensation awarded by the tribunal."

Councillor Bolam said yesterday: "Along with other councillors, I want money to be spent on services, not administration. I wouldn't sit easy with my conscience unless we did it any other way."

"We have been unable to get on with normal business while all this was going on. Now all we want to do is to move forward."

The council's chairman, Tom Martin, and last year's chairman, who supported Mrs Ward, have resigned.