A YORK councillor has been accused of failing in his duties - by serving pints instead of people.

Mark Waudby was elected to serve Skelton, Rawcliffe and Clifton Without four years ago.

But, since November, he has been living in East Yorkshire, and working as licensee at The Odd Fellows Arms, in Pocklington.

He is not seeking re-election to the council at next week's election, but political rival Nick Blitz criticised his performance as a councillor.

Mr Blitz, who is standing for the Liberal Party in Heworth Without, said: "He is leaving with the most cynical of departures, where he has done nothing of any merit for about a year. He is not representing his constituents and they cannot go and knock on his door."

But Coun Waudby said he still dealt with constituents' queries by phone or email, and local work had been divided between his two ward colleagues. He said he himself had not attended surgeries lately, but his mother, Coun Irene Waudby, and Coun Richard Moore had.

He said: "My job circumstances changed and I knew I would not want to stand for another term. I said to Steve Galloway (council leader) not to keep me on committees because of my work commitments. I did offer to stand down from the council, but Steve Galloway said there was no need. There were only six months until the election anyway. By the time I had gone through the process, it would have been less than six months until the election, so people would have had no councillor at all."

Mr Blitz said Coun Waudby's situation showed that Coun Galloway's claim that councillors should live in their wards was "simplistic".

Coun Galloway said: "Mark has now left York but lives nearby in Stamford Bridge. That is much closer to the city than several of the Tory candidates who are actually seeking election on May 3."

Any councillor who fails to attend a meeting for six months is automatically disqualified.