A YORK parish council chairman who said he would resign after being ‘unjustly’ accused of disrespectful behaviour towards a fellow councillor revealed today that 'it didn’t go to plan.'

Cllr Joe Watt, chair of Skelton Parish Council, was criticised by a City of York Council standards committee last month over allegations he made against Cllr Adrian Mansell.

The committee recommended the parish should pass a motion of censure on him for acting in a 'disrespectful' manner.

Cllr Watt then told The Press that the motion against him 'wouldn't happen' because he intended to resign as both chairman and a councillor at the start of the monthly meeting on March 24.

But he said yesterday: "It didn't go to plan. I was advised that a parish council has to be constituted with a chairman and, to resign, a chairman must resign in writing, which must then be considered by the full parish council at its next regular meeting.

"Had I stated that I resigned at our March meeting and left the meeting, I would still have been the chairman until due process had been completed.

"Because the parish council elects its chairman anyway for the following year at its annual parish council meeting on May 26, I decided to do nothing before then. Therefore, I am still the chairman."

Cllr Watt also said he had been 'touched' by the number of parish council members, Skelton residents, friends and even some from outside the parish who had expressed regret that he might resign. "I am, therefore, in a quandary," he said.

He said he had been told that no decisions were made on the matter and any motion of ‘Censure’ against him would be considered in public at a meeting on April 28.

Cllr Mansell said that on a number of occasions, Cllr Watt had been asked to apologise and move forward but had refused, which was why the Standards Committee 'took such a dim view' of his conduct.

"Cllr Watt’s conduct towards myself and my wife Linda has been totally disrespectful, for which we were clearly vindicated by the outcome of the Standards Committee panel findings," he said

"Had Cllr Watt apologised to myself for publicly calling me a 'racist and a bigot’, then I would not have filed the original complaint."

He said Cllr Watt had clearly indicated in an article in The Press last month that his intention was to resign but he had failed to go through with this course of action.

He said that while Cllr Watt maintained that 'procedures’ had precluded him from resigning, he believed this was incorrect, 'as any chairman can resign if he issues the clerk with a written resignation letter.'