A TOWN councillor in Ferndown says his reputation was impugned when he was asked to provide evidence of charity accounts.

Douglas Lock says relations between him and Ferndown Town Council have been terrible since it requested a copy of detailed accounts for the mayor's charity appeal for the newly opened children's playground - of which he is finance officer.

But the council has refused to retract the request and at a recent meeting voted that since there is no record of donations under £250, no member of the council or King George V trustees could be held responsible for the present or future running of the fund. It said any queries about the fund should be forwarded to former mayor John Rigler or Cllr Lock.

A letter from Douglas's wife Marion, which was considered at the meeting, read: "Both Douglas and I were offended by the ill-mannered way in which these details were demanded and resented the implication that we could not be trusted to run this account in an open and honest manner.

"We were particularly affronted as we both incurred a number of expenses raising money for the mayor's charity appeal.

"The demand made by the council for a presentation of detailed accounts from the mayor's charity appeal is without precedent and unheard of in normal council practice. A sight of these details is unnecessary for the compilation of the playground account." And Cllr Lock told the Daily Echo he did have a detailed account of every contribution, however small, which was made to the appeal.

Cllr Lock was asked to leave the council chamber during the finance and general purposes committee meeting on October 4 as other members discussed the matter.

The minutes of that meeting state: "The character of Cllr Lock has never been impugned.

"As trustees of the King George V charity, councillors had every right to request a full accounting of donations below £250. The donors of small amounts could not be invited to the opening of the children's playground as there had not been a full accounting as requested.

"There has never been any accusation of impropriety but a copy of the final accounts or bank statements would have been helpful in clearing up this matter."

First published: Oct 25