An East Riding councillor has been accused of a "churlish vendetta" by filing a standards complaint over other councillors' "inappropriate" language at a planning meeting.

Conservative councillor Leo Hammond, Cabinet member for planning, made the complaint against Lib Dems Denis Healy and Linda Johnson after a meeting in January to discuss controversial plans for a new household waste and recycling tip in Beverley.

Both ward councillors Healy and Johnson spoke against plans for the tip on Ings Road, next the Hudson Way trail. The committee voted to turn down the plans which had attracted 2,682 objections.

Afterwards, Coun Hammond - who recently became deputy police and crime commissioner - filed a complaint that the councillors had "inferred that officers had tried to mislead the committee and had failed to be transparent and therefore, accused them of lying".

Leo Hammond - the deputy police and crime commissioner

Coun Hammond claimed this had brought the reputation of the council into disrepute and had put officers "at risk".

However his complaint has not been upheld by East Riding Council's Standards Committee Assessment Sub-Committee.

The Reserve Independent Person (RIP) supported the monitoring officer's recommendation of no further action. The RIP said the councillors' objections were "robust" and the terms used - "trust", "misinterpret" and "misleading" - were "a little strong". However the officers were not named and the RIP felt it was a "legitimate challenge".

The sub-committee said the Code of Conduct was not intended to stifle criticism but councillors should be "mindful" of their comments.

Coun Healy said: "Coun Hammond and the Tory led council were hell bent on getting the Beverley tip located at this site, but democracy and common sense prevailed when planning committee councillors turned down the application.

"But rather than accepting that councillors decided to put the feelings of residents first, Coun Hammond chose instead to conduct a churlish vendetta against the democratically elected ward councillors who spoke up for their residents by wasting everyone’s time with a baseless complaint to the standards committee."

However Coun Hammond said he "couldn't believe" his complaint had been thrown out and would be challenging it.

He said the councillors' behaviour was "frankly disgusting", adding: "I'm taking the matter further because I don't think we should have a situation where councillors are unaccountable and can say what they like. I respect the (planning) committee's decision but not councillor Healy and Johnson’s conduct."

Coun Healy said officers were now working with ward councillors to find an alternative site,to the one at Weel which is built on an old landfill site, leading to contamination when it floods.

They were down to a "dozen or so sites" and it would have to impact the "fewest number of residents".

Coun Hammond said he didn't believe there was another site close to Beverley "that isn't close to residential properties".

Councillor accused of 'churlish vendetta' after Beverley tip site decision