A TOWN councillor has been thrown off his committee after he was accused of bringing the authority into disrepute.

Cllr Jack Speight, who represents Chequerbent on Westhoughton Town Council, had allegedly made a series of false statements on social media back in 2014.

These included claims that he instigated the raising of the Union Flag above the town hall on Lancashire Day and that he was the only councillor to vote against an application when he was not.

He was given one last chance to apologise at Monday's town council meeting.

But he decided to leave the chamber before the item was discussed, much to the exasperation of some members.

The council voted to remove Cllr Speight from the Planning and Finance and General Purposes Committee and that he can not be appointed to any committees 'during the life of this town council'.

Several members criticised Cllr Speight for his actions and rejected his previous statements on the matter, including 'he would not be bullied' and that the council had held secret meetings.

Cllr David Chadwick said: "We have had six or seven planning applications tonight and he has not voted on any of them, for or against.

"In this chamber we have our political differences but we all work for the benefit of Westhoughton.

"And we have got him who is going around telling untruths.

"I am just uncomfortable with his whole attitude to the members of the council"

Cllr Speight had previously said the issue had cost the town council time and money, which was rejected by the town clerk.

Cllr Speight said: "I apologised right off the bat but they did not accept it. They wanted to take it further.

"Like I have said before, it is just more allegations that I refute. They have done it now and that's it. I offered to apologise and they would not accept it.

"That was going back into 2014 and now we are going into 2018. A normal person would take someone to one side and tell them to delete it but they want to find fault.

"It is fake news. Even in the articles its fake news.

"This is political point scoring and they get what they want."

The town council have made a complaint to Bolton Council claiming that Cllr Speight accused the authority of 'bullying' and holding secret meetings.

But Cllr Speight said: "I did not say that, I said 'I will not be bullied'.

"I did not say a councillor had been bullying me.

"I will not be bullied but I never said anything about councillors.

"I will apologise when I have done wrong, I am man enough to do that but I can not apologise for something that I have been accused of wrongly.

"I put the apology in a letter to the town clerk in February but that was not good enough.

"It is all political. It is run like a parish council but it is party politics.

"At the end of the day it is politics.

"We need to get politics out of town councils and get independent people from all walks of life."