A former mayor breached a council's code of conduct after allegations of bullying the authority's clerk were found proven.

Richard Ash MBE, represented Bearsted on Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) for 24 years from 1992 to 2016 and he served as Mayor of Maidstone in 2008.

He no longer sits on the borough council, but he is still a parish councillor in Bearsted.

But back in May this year, he was reported to MBC's monitoring officer by parish council chairman Martin Broughton, who alleged that "he persistently harasses the parish clerk by email, letter and during meetings of the parish council, in relation to the quality of her work".

It was said the harassment was specifically in relation to grammatical errors made by the clerk, Erin Sugden, when drafting minutes of the meetings. Cllr Broughton said Cllr Ash's behaviour had resulted in the clerk "feeling bullied and anxious".

After a full investigation, it was found that Cllr Ash's behaviour at meetings did not amount to bullying and that there was also no breach of the code in respect of his comments on draft minutes and correspondence.

But it was found that his behaviour during one visit to the parish office did amount to bullying.

MBC's monitoring officer Robin Harris suggested Cllr Ash look to moderate his tone and manner and said that Cllr Ash's behaviour could be considered "pedantic" and "petulant and childish".

It was suggested the parish council should arrange mediation between the clerk and Cllr Ash and also that the clerk should be supported with proof reading in an attempt "to avoid conflict concerning typographical accuracy".

At a meeting of the council on Tuesday, Bearsted Parish Council voted by six to five, with one abstention, to remove Cllr Ash from the finance and general policy committee. The vote reversed a decision taken just the month before to appoint him to the committee.

Cllr Jon Hughes proposed the motion, seconded by Sandra Knatchbull, who said that it was a point of principle that Cllr Ash should not sit on a committee whose job it was to determine the council's policies, when he had just been found to have breached one of them.

Cllr Ash declared his disappointment, saying: "I was cleared of most of the allegations. The one breach, I admit, I was a bit rude. I ignored the clerk, basically because I was speaking to somebody else.

"I've been asked to accept my behaviour was wrong, which I have, but you are not allowing us to move on."

Cllr Ash asked for a named vote to be taken. Those who voted for his removal from the committee were Cllrs Martin Broughton, Suzanne Camp, Graeme Hannington, Jon Hughes, Sandra Knatchbull and Adam Powell.

Those against were Cllrs Ash, David Hall, Pat Marshall, Denis Spooner and Jo Tribley, with Cllr Fabienne Hughes abstaining.

Two councillors, Mike Harris and Mark Peters, were absent from the meeting.

The clerk then called for a replacement for Cllr Ash's position on the committee. There were no volunteers. That leaves the committee with only three members: Cllrs Broughton, Spooner and Tribley, which is the minimum necessary for its meetings to be quorate.