TWO Minehead town councillors have made an official complaint to the authority’s external auditors, claiming that the council has repeatedly breached its standing orders and financial regulations.

They have asked for an official investigation.

At the town council’s meeting on Tuesday, Cllr Terry Venner and Cllr John Malin abstained or voted against a number of recommendations concerning the council’s accounts for the year 2016-17.

Cllr Venner said afterwards that he and Cllr Malin could not support any of the accounts recommendations because they believed there were “major irregularities” which needed to be investigated.

At the meeting, when the council was asked to agree the “annual governance statement” for the year ending March 2017, the two councillors asked for a recorded vote on the recommendation.

Clerk Sue Sanders questioned whether a recorded vote was appropriate in this instance, and Cllr Malin quoted a paragraph from the council’s standing orders saying it was a statutory requirement that if any councillor requested a recorded vote it must be allowed. The mayor, Cllr Jean Parbrook, agreed to their request.

When Cllr Parbrook asked the two councillors why they had voted against the proposition, Cllr Venner said that their decision was tied in to the complaint about breaches of regulations.

“Alleged breaches,” said Cllr Parbrook.

Afterwards Cllr Malin said: “For months we have questioned certain financial payments made by the council but unfortunately we have never had satisfactory answers to these issues.”

Cllr Parbrook told the Free Press: “It is regretable that Cllrs Malin and Venner chose to vote against the excellent financial report for their own reasons.

“Anything but a unanimous vote for the recommendations on financial matters could well trigger an investigation which could cost the council and the residents of Minehead a great deal of money.”