MINEHEAD’S mayor and his wife and fellow town councillor, were this week issued with an ultimatum to quit - or face another resignation from the council.

Former mayor Terry Venner said he had planned to challenge the Palmers at the town’s annual meeting on Tuesday evening, telling the Free Press that he would announce his intended resignation if the couple did not stand down.

But neither Cllr Craig Palmer - who had been re-elected mayor a week earlier - nor his wife Cllr Mimi Palmer attended the meeting, as the mayor was unwell.

The crisis came to a head last week after town clerk Sam Rawle resigned, saying she could no longer work with the Palmers, followed by the departure of the two remaining senior officers, deputy clerk Brian Howe and admin assistant Julie Notley.

Former mayor Sandra Slade has also handed in her resignation and another councillor is believed to be considering their position.

The resignation of seven councillors in a year has now reduced the council to nine members. The authority has no deputy mayor and should no town clerk be appointed by July 4, it will have no qualified officers and will be unable to hold meetings.

Last week, Cllr Palmer, the only nominee, was elected mayor on a 5-3 vote with two abstentions. There were no nominations for deputy mayor.

Nearly 40 residents attended the annual town meeting, which was chaired, in the mayor’s absence, by Cllr Mark Kingston-James, who stepped in with less than an hour#s notice.

Earlier in the week, Cllr Venner, who has been a town councillor for 25 years, sent a statement to the mayor, circulated to all the other councillors in which he said: “I believe that the current mayor, Cllr Craig Palmer and Cllr Mimi Palmer have brought this council into disrepute not only with the Minehead BID but with members of the staff, including the town clerk.

“There has been a complete breakdown in the relationship between several councillors and the clerk and maybe other officers.

“I for one do not want to return to the dark old days of a dysfunctional council.”

“I would urge Cllrs Craig and Mimi Palmer to do the most honourable thing - that is, resign from the council without delay.

“If, however, they wish to continue and not take full responsibility for this terrible situation, it leaves me with no alternative but to resign from the council as from this Friday.

“It is up to all members to do what they believe is in the best interests of the council by acting in accordance with council policies and to be true to ourselves at all times by always doing the right thing - however painful it might be.

Cllr Venner concluded: “I can no longer continue to serve the people of Minehead with the current situation between councillors.”

At the annual meeting, former town councillor Michael Burke asked how the council could survive with a depleted membership and no qualified officers, and wondered whether the authority would still be in existence in a month’s time.

Cllr Kingston-James said they would make every effort to put things right and would recruit more officers and hope to attract more councillors.

Sandra Slade, the latest councillor to resign, told the Free Press: “I am not happy with the situation at the council at the moment and that, together with health problems, has forced me to stand down.”

Cllr Venner said after the meeting: “We are now seven councillors short and if I go on Friday that will be eight, which is half the council.

“We have no office staff and the council is fast becoming dysfunctional - we’re going around like headless chickens. It’s like being on the Titanic. We have already hit the iceberg. No-one knows what to do next and we’ve just found out there are no lifeboats.

He said totally understood and supported Ms Rawle’s decision to resign. “We are going to have real problems recruiting staff. I believe that no-one wants to come to Minehead town council because of councillors’ behaviour.”

In response, Cllrs Craig and Mimi Palmer hit out at what they called the “public airing of personal perceived grievances and vendettas”; and compared it to the recent “unwarranted, appalling” treatment of the previous mayor.

Cllr Andrew Kingston-James resigned his position as mayor in March.

They added: “It has to stop. The barrage of baseless accusations is extremely detrimental to the physical and mental health of the victims, and achieves precisely nothing.”

They also hit out at the Free Press for the coverage of the chaos at the council, adding that it “undermines the council, the work of the council and its councillors”.