THE deputy mayor of Petersfield has been accused of abusing his position to gain more power in the town council. Experienced town councillor Ken Hick said his counterpart Bob Ayer was "cynically manipulating democracy" in his role as chairman of the finance committee. At a meeting of the town council on Monday, Mr Hick, who heads the staff panel, claimed Mr Ayer was guilty of gerrymandering in "the pursuit of personal power". They were disputing the wording of a document which sets out guidelines for the relationship between officers and councillors. Mr Hick, who has twice been mayor of Petersfield, believed the word "party" should be inserted before "political groups" as the public already had a perception that councillors were elected on their political tendencies. He added that the public perception of the council was that it was divided into party political groups and that this was affecting the way members voted. He said he felt the finance committee (F and GP) seemed to be running his panel and overruling all of its recommendations. "We are in the situation where the staff panel agreed something and the F and GP committee diametrically opposed it," said Mr Hick. "We accepted this protocol - the only suggestion that we had to change it came from Councillor Ayer. Having said that, some of Councillor Ayer's suggestions were agreed and incorporated. "Then we come to the problem of this being put in the protocol as a whole and I'm led to say 'why do we bother to have a staff panel?' Let's have an answer to that. "I have the feeling F and GP wish to run the staffing of this council and this is further evidence of it. "There seems to be a bit of a dichotomy in your mind when we talk about politics. He said if it was being denied there was party politics in the council "it would be the moment when pigs flew over". "I begin to wonder what is going on and then I remember that the previous chairman of the staff panel resigned. I wondered why, but now I know why," he said. "It is this gerrymandering of the staff panel. It is my feeling that it is the cynical manipulation of democracy in the pursuit of power - personal power. And I think it is serious - serious for this council. "I really don't know where the staff panel goes from here. "Simply to say that there are no party political groups flies in the face of commonsense. No amount of weaselly words will change the public's mind." Earlier in the meeting Mr Hick had turned down an offer to sit on the finance and general purposes committee after a seat had become vacant following the resignation of Julie Butler from the council. He said: "I have mixed feelings. It is obvious to me that the staff panel does not have the autonomy that it should have. "I'm not sure I want any part of that process. I'm going to say no." Mr Ayer said that when he had first arrived on the council he had formed a successful panel with Mr Hick which was "heavily praised" at the time. He said he was merely acting through standing orders he did not create. "The perception of the public may be that there are political groups, but the fact is that at this moment in time there are no political groups in this council - I have personally opposed them. I can't do anything about perception," said Mr Ayer. "My perception of F and GP is that in general it has been very supportive of all the recommendations brought to it. And his colleague George Watkinson told Mr Hick: "it was not a personal move by the F and GP to alter everything that had been put there by your working party. "I really do think that we were trying to help and not be difficult, and there was a lot of discussion." Members decided to remove the contentious paragraph from the document altogether.