WATCHET town councillor John Richards has hit back at three councillors who voted for him to be reported for breaches of their code of conduct, by claiming that allegations brought against him were nothing to do with the council.

Councillors approved - by three votes to nil with three abstentions - a proposal to report Cllr Richards, who was absent though illness, to Somerset Council’s monitoring officer after confidential emails had been made public.

Deputy mayor Cllr Loretta Whetlor, who is also chair of Watchet Harbour Advisory Committee, had complained that an email she sent to Somerset Council objecting to ‘being completely left in the dark about marina negotiations’, which appeared in the Free Press, was confidential and should not have been published.

She said that Cllr Richards, also a member of the WHAC, had denied sending the email to the Free Press but she had tracked the trail of the email to the newspaper.

Cllr Richards said: “Unfortunately, I was very ill last week and was unable to attend the meeting, otherwise I would have been able to put councillors in their place straight away.

“It is also interesting that only three people, out of a council of 10, voted for the motion.

“The emails published in the press were absolutely nothing to do with the town council.

“Nor were any town council documents disclosed in them.

“Neither was any statement or announcement made on behalf of the council.

“They were clearly made by an individual who has great concern for the future of Watchet Marina.

“It was very clear that I was not speaking as a town councillor.

“For clarity, the communications were over the Marine Group and Watchet Marina only - which included communication between members of the WHAC, but not the town council.”

The move to report Cllr Richards for alleged breaches of the code of conduct stemmed from a Free Press report on February 2 headlined ‘Anger as marina dredger sails away’.

This quoted Cllrs Richards and Whetlor as being concerned about the lack of information about negotiations between marina operator Christopher Odling-Smee and Somerset Council, and the poor state of the marina.

The decision to include the emails in the article was made after they were offered to the Free Press by sources who believed that publishing the information was very much in the public interest.

For the council, the town clerk Jo Grellier said there was concern about the use of Watchet town councillor titles in the article as this could be interpreted as being the council’s view, which was not the case.

Cllr Richards said he was also concerned about the last-minute cancellation of an agenda item on the closed meeting about the marina, held on December 6, after Mr Odling-Smee had refused to attend via Zoom.

He said: “I note that the council deferred this item because Mr Odling-Smee wasn’t prepared to speak in public but they didn’t have the courtesy to defer the item about me, denying me the opportunity to put my side of the case.

“I was looking forward to the report from the Marine Group as I have a great personal interest in what is going on at the marina.

“Mr Odling-Smee had asked to speak via Zoom to a full town council meeting.

“These meetings are public meetings, which anyone can attend.

“Mr Odling-Smee then had the audacity to tell the council that he had changed his mind because he didn't want the press to hear what he was going to say.

“Unbelievable, if it wasn't true.”

Regarding the closed meeting held in December, Cllr Richards said he wished to challenge remarks made by Cllr John Irven.

He said: “He has accused me of a ‘breach of the decision of the parties at that meeting.’

“But how can someone breach a decision without knowing what it is?

“I couldn’t attend as I was abroad at the time but asked for a copy of the minutes. Despite the fact this meeting was over two months ago, no minutes have yet been produced.

“My concern is the state of the marina and its future and I still wonder what Somerset Council is playing at over the Marine Group.

“Importantly, the problems with the marina are deflecting from all the hard work a lot of us are trying to do to promote the town.”