A LAWYER should be present at Pickering Town Council meetings to stop them turning into a 'circus', according to the town's deputy mayor.

The council last night debated a motion calling for its solicitor to be there "for the benefit of common sense and to keep within the law".

One of its supporters, Councillor Linda Cowling, said the motion should not have referred to last night's meeting, but to any when town council accommodation was discussed.

The council is split over whether it should seek accommodation away from Pickering's War Memorial Hall, which is the subject of a £600,000 restoration scheme. The motion about the solicitor followed a heated meeting on December 15, when the issue was last discussed.

Deputy mayor Councillor Valerie Todd said: "I thought parts of the last town council meeting were a circus and I thought it brought this town council into disrepute." She wanted the solicitor present to give advice and "keep us on the straight and narrow".

But town Mayor, Gaynor de Barr, said they should be wary of the costs involved, adding council rules did not allow the motion to be changed in the way Coun Cowling suggested.

Members instead agreed to a suggestion from Coun John Shannon that the authority should first seek advice from the Yorkshire Local Councils Association.

Coun de Barr announced that the clerk to the council, Freda Clarke, had submitted her resignation after 11 years in the post.

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