A TOWN council has taken action against one of its members after he was alleged to have brought the authority into disrepute with a series of false statements.

Cllr Jack Speight, who represents Chequerbent on Westhoughton Town Council, is now no longer eligible to represent the authority on any outside committees or bodies in the period to the next election.

It has also been reiterated that he is ineligible to be town mayor or deputy town mayor, although he was already informed of this by the town clerk Christine Morris.

This is the latest in a long-running saga that started three years ago, when Cllr Speight posted what was alleged to be false statements on Twitter and on his blog.

These include claims that he instigated the raising of the union flag over the town hall on Lancashire Day in 2014.

He is also alleged to have said he was the only councillor to vote against two planning applications at Roscoe Farm, when all councillors objected to them.

The council has given Cllr Speight until the next meeting in December to apologise for the original allegations and for his recent statements accusing the council of bullying and of 'meeting in secret'.

During Monday's town council meeting, Cllr David Wilkinson said: "The next meeting is his final chance to do all of these things.

"It needs to be in big capital letters saying 'you must do these things' because the town council has had enough. End of. There is nothing beyond December. If he does not understand it that is his problem.

"When it comes to the next meeting in December, if these things have not been dealt with, and they're not nasty or hard, they are fair and reasonable requests about him clarifying and apologising for his actions.

"The flag was totally untrue. The statement about the housing application was wrong. If he does not understand this, well sorry Jack, you have to reassess what you are doing."

Cllr Speight left the council chamber before the discussion but earlier in the meeting he said he had written to the town clerk in February offering to apologise.

He added: "I will apologise to the town clerk and I will put it in writing. I will apologise to my fellow town councillors and hopefully that is going to be an end to the matter."

Cllr Speight said: "There are no winners in this situation. It has cost the council too much time and money already.

"I have said that I would apologise and tick all their boxes but it is not enough. I cannot do any more."

The next meeting will take place at the town hall on Monday, December 11.