A TILFORD parish councillor has been thrown off the council for refusing to sign up to a new government code of conduct insisting councillors declare all business and private interests.
Ian May, who in April stood down as chairman of the council in protest over the code, has been in limbo for the last eight months, waiting to hear if he would be banned.
Now Mr May, who felt the new code intrusive and bureaucratic, has received a letter from the Waverley Council officer charged with enforcing the code, telling him he must not sit on the council.
"It is not appropriate that a non-councillor should regularly attend meetings at which he/she would have an influencing effect and yet not be bound by the same code as all the members," reads the letter from Anne Bott, Waverley's monitoring officer.
"I have therefore advised the (parish council) clerk it is not appropriate for you to attend the meetings unless you are specifically invited to speak on a particular matter."
After receiving the letter, Mr May, who during his months in limbo had sat on the council but not voted, sat in the public seats during the council's meeting last week.
"I chose to sit in the public seats mainly not to embarrass the chairman," he said after the meeting.
"I told the council I am considering a response to Anne Bott and possibly some sort of judicial review.
"I think there's something morally wrong and legally wrong about this."
Mr May has joined parish councillors from all over the country in rejecting the code, part of the Local Government Act 2000.
"I'm surprised by the amount of interest my case has provoked in the village," he said.
In a three-page form, councillors are asked to declare financial interests and private interests, such as membership of organisations, charities and trades unions.