Police were called to town council offices in Cornwall on Friday over a dispute that arose after the council suspended its clerk.

Bodmin Town Council won’t say why it has suspended town clerk Peter Martin - although a number of sources have confirmed he was suspended from his duties on Friday, August 16.

Despite several requests, the council has yet to respond with reasons for the suspension of its most senior officer, who is responsible for carrying out the decisions of the local authority.

A contact, who did not want to be named, said that Mr Martin refused to accept the suspension and carried on working in his office until the end of the working day on Friday.

A spokesperson for Devon and Cornwall Police said: “Police were called at around 11.25am on Friday, August 16, following reports of a male refusing to leave a building in Mount Folly, Bodmin. An officer attended the scene and spoke to those involved.”

The Local Democracy Reporting Service attended a Bodmin Town Council planning meeting last night (Wednesday, August 21) to ask councillors why Mr Martin had been suspended. Mayor of Bodmin Liz Ahearn said: “We don’t comment on staffing issues.”

When asked if that was the case even when it was of public and democratic interest, she replied: "No comment."

Other councillors present at the meeting also responded with a “no comment”.

It is understood that Mr Martin is now considering legal action against the council and that an application for a tribunal, instigated by Mr Martin before his suspension, is ongoing.

Philip Kerridge, a former Bodmin councillor, wrote to all of the council’s current members this week concerning Mr Martin’s suspension. He said: “Interesting many of you are so fulsome off the record but unwilling to let the town know what is going on. Councils don’t suspend the boss every day of the week. Sensible councils would put out a statement to quash the rumour mill.

“Competent people would have had this written before they issued the suspension. It doesn’t give us much confidence you’re going to get a potential dismissal right either. Are council tax payers in for another hit when this clerk goes?”

In February, a code of conduct complaint made by Mr Martin against Cllr Liz Ahearn was rejected following a Cornwall Council investigation. Mr Martin considered that Cllr Ahearn had breached the local government code of conduct as she had requested copies of information relating to estates inspection reports without specifying a purpose for its use. It was decided that, as a councillor, she was entitled to request the information.

The following month a meeting of Bodmin Town Council’s policy and resources committee had to be adjourned when Mr Martin walked out. At one point during the meeting, councillors wanted to know why the council’s risk review document was lengthy, with many issues labelled as the highest level ‘red risk’.

Addressing Mr Martin, Cllr Ahearn said: “What confuses me is if you go back over the last five or six years, there were virtually two high risks to the council but in the last three or four months, there’s risk after risk, all of them high and that concerns me. How have we gone from next to nothing to virtually everything being a high risk?”

A tense discussion about how much power is devolved to the council’s officers was met by the town clerk walking out of the room. The meeting then had to be adjourned.

Cllr Rajesh Joshi, chair of the council’s policy and resources committee, commented in the town council’s annual report for 2023/24: “As part of the framework of full disclosure, it would be complicit not to bring to attention that during the period from October 2023 through to April 2024, bullying, harassment and intimidation by a group of councillors have been reported.

“Committee meetings have been disrupted by councillors failing to attend. These incidences have marred the great work that was being achieved by the council as a whole these past three years. The disruption and poor working environment has truly slowed down progression these past six months and prevented the council from achieving the much-deserved Gold Award.”

Mr Martin did not wish to comment about his suspension from Bodmin Town Council following legal advice.