THE Lyme Regis town councillor who resigned as vice-chairman of the council's policy committee launched an attack on the town mayor's handling of last week's grant application debacle. Coun Daryl Turner, who was called Darren by two of his fellow councillors at Wednesday's policy committee meeting, said councillors had been barred from speaking by the mayor at the meeting. He said: "The chair (Coun Austin) pushed through the application. Other councillors were not allowed to talk. They were twice told 'We're not going there' - that's not democracy." He said the mayor had approached one councillor - Peter Bean - three days before the meeting to secure his support. But other councillors knew nothing of the late application from the guides and were forced to make a decision that night. He said none of the usual procedures, such as examining bank statements and audited accounts from the guides, had been adhered to. He said: "This is nothing whatsoever to do with the guides. The issue I have is with the failure to carry out the policies that I thought were in place." He added that a rescinding motion would be put forward, saying he was certain there were enough councillors (six) to ensure the decision to give the grant in this way was taken back at the next town council meeting. He added that the money could then go through the correct processes and be re-allocated to the guides, or not. Councillors eventually agreed to review a loophole in their guidelines for grant applications at the next policy committee. Currently the rules state: "The council has a policy of considering grants on an annual basis and therefore, ad hoc applications, as a rule, will not be considered." Some councillors felt that the three words "as a rule" gave late applications, such as that of the guides, a "get out of jail free card".