A COUNCILLOR is facing possible disciplinary action following his actions at a residents' meeting.

Liberal Democrat councillor David Sutton, who serves the Northwood and Birches Head ward on Stoke-on-Trent City Council, is alleged to have breached the authority's strict code of conduct.

The alleged breach relates to an incident at a meeting of the Newshaw Walk Residents' Association, in Hanley, on May 18 last year.

The Sentinel has learned that a complaint about Mr Sutton, pictured, was made by political opponent Eve Maley, who controversially lost out to him by a single vote in the May 2008 council elections.

Mrs Maley, of Eastwood Road, Northwood, fought an 18-month battle to challenge the result, but was finally defeated in January following an Electoral Commission inquiry.

She was at the Newshaw Walk residents' meeting, and claims that Mr Sutton turned up and began telling committee members about a letter sent from a senior council officer to the association's chairman, Geoffrey Brookes.

The letter, which was understood to have been addressed to Mr Brookes, is said to have alleged that he had upset council staff who attended the group's meetings.

Mr Sutton is believed to have read the letter to the meeting and then handed out copies to people in the room until he was asked to leave.

Mrs Maley said she made a formal complaint about the councillor's behaviour, as she did not believe he should have read the private letter out.

She said: "It was clearly addressed to Geoff Brookes, and I felt that Mr Sutton had no right to be reading it out to everybody. Geoff asked him to stop and sit down, but he refused and carried on reading.

"When he had finished, Geoff asked the members if they still wanted him to be chairman, and everyone agreed we did, so the meeting carried on and Mr Sutton was asked to leave.

She went on to claim: "As he was walking out of the church hall, he was still handing out copies of the letter to people who were coming in."

Mr Sutton will appear before the standards committee's hearings sub-committee on Tuesday. The hearing will be held in private.

Mr Sutton yesterday confirmed that he is due to face a disciplinary hearing, but declined to comment further on the case.

He said: "There will be a hearing, but I cannot talk about it as it is being dealt with in private."

The city council declined to comment on the case, due to the confidential nature of the process.

Mr Brookes, aged 65, who is still chairman of the residents' association, said he was pleased Mr Sutton would appear before the standards committee.

But he said he has little confidence the matter will be taken seriously.

He claimed: "I did ask Mr Sutton three times to stop reading the letter out at that meeting, as it was a personal letter addressed to me, and then I asked him to leave the meeting.

"This incident has caused a lot of upset between my committee and the council, which is still going on."

He added: "I can't help telling things as I see them, and that doesn't go down very well sometimes with people in authority."