A new parish council clerk has resigned just five days into his appointment.

Chris Horan, who was Dartmouth Town Council’s clerk for 14 years until, 2012, took up the post of clerk to Kingswear Parish Council on Monday, September 4. He resigned on Friday, September 8.

Chairman of Kingswear Parish Council, Councillor Jan Henshall, said: “Chris Horan, Clerk to Kingswear Parish Council, has resigned for personal reasons.”

At the time of the parish council meeting on Tuesday, September 12th, Cllr Henshall had received Mr Horan’s letter of resignation and was seen to waive it during questions about the circumstances of the resignation.

The previous clerk to the parish, David Edwards, also resigned for personal reasons. Mr Horan was Dartmouth Town Clerk for 15 years. He left Dartmouth Town Council following a disagreement with a substantial payment.

Meetings of the Kingswear Parish Council have seen heated discussions and one councillor, Cllr Mike Trevorrow, was reprimanded for his behaviour recently but refused to apologise. Another councillor’s behaviour is the subject of a compliant which is being investigated.

Mr Horan attended one parish council finance meeting and subsequently, a presentation on the development of Noss-on-Dart Marina at Follaton House on Wednesday, September 6. Two days later, he telephoned the chairman of the parish council, Cllr Henshall, and told her that he was resigning with immediate effect.

At the parish council meeting, on the following Tuesday, the matter was raised by a resident, Peter Puddock, when the meeting is suspended for questions or representations from members of the public.

He asked: “I heard from my next door neighbour that the new clerk had resigned because an email from a councillor was sent to discredit him?” Cllr Hawkins immediately responded to the question.

Mr Puddock added: “Mr Hawkins came back at me in the meeting and admitted that he sent the email, shouting as he normally does.

He said: ‘You wanted to save the council money’” It was a reference to a letter I had written to the Dartmouth Chronicle, I suppose. The rest of what he said I could not hear because of the noise from those at the meeting, This council is absurd and fractious.”

The email was sent by Cllr Hawkins to all members of the parish council. Its content was: “Can you please tell me if Chris Horan can type? As I understand when he was working at Dartmouth Town Council, he could not. As we have a number of confidential issues, this could be a concern.”

This email found its way to the hands of Mr Horan who has not responded to the Chronicle’s requests for a comment, at the time of going to press.

Mr Hawkins however, commented: “As someone who has known Chris Horan for many many years both as the previous Dartmouth Town Clerk and as someone who worked alongside Chris on the Paignton and Dartmouth Railway, I know first hand how hard working and committed Chris would have been as our new Clerk. He certainly had the experience the KPC needs. It is a great shame he left.”

Cllr Henshall added:”I have known and liked Chris for all his time as Clerk to Dartmouth Town Council and I was looking forward very much to working with him. I am very sorry that he has felt it necessary to resign and feel that we are all diminished by the circumstances and the embarrassment caused."

Since clerk Emma Illingworth, who started in 2007, resigned in June 2015, the council has lost Rob Barber, who quit in June 2016, and David Edwards who announced he would be leaving in August this year. A replacement for Chris Horan has not been announced.