Aspatria's mayor has quit the town council just two months after taking office.

Bill Finlay, of East Crescent, said he was left in an "untenable" position after none of his seven colleagues supported him as mayor at a meeting. 

He claimed he was accused of questioning the competence and commitment of council members in articles, doing nothing over the last four years as a councillor and "being fuelled by personal ambition."

Mr Finlay said he was forced to quit after refusing a demand to have correspondence he created as mayor vetted before it was published.  

Mr Finlay, who is also an Allerdale councillor, claimed he had no idea that he was about to face a “highly prejudicial and an evidently rehearsed challenge” at the monthly council meeting.

He said it was the result of a piece he had written in the council newsletter. 

He added:  “It was written as a challenge to the people of Aspatria to work with and through the town council and especially their local town councillors to promote the interests of Aspatria.

“This was the only article I have authored as mayor of Aspatria since my election.

"I was challenging the wider community to become more active in shaping what happens in Aspatria, and in particular to do so by volunteering to take up the two casual vacancies on the council.

“This being the case, it would have been perverse in the extreme if I had simultaneously intended to undermine the credibility of existing members of the very same organisation I was encouraging other people to join.

"At the end of these clearly rehearsed verbal challenges, I asked if any member of the council present was prepared to speak on my behalf. None were.

"I then called for a vote of confidence in me as mayor, but no-one would propose."

Alan Reay, town councillor and former mayor, said it had been nobody's intention for Mr Finlay to resign. 

He said: “I admit I got into him because I felt that the article suggested that nobody else on the council was doing anything.

“I wanted to make a point. When he put the no confidence vote, I told him that it was not a matter of us not having confidence in him but that we just wanted to ensure that he thought it out before writing.”

Coun Reay said the mayoral civic service, planned for Sunday August 16, has now been cancelled and Coun Reay will be attending the annual senior citizen trip organised by the mayor.

Barry Chambers is deputy mayor but a decision on who will take over Mr Finlay's job will be confirmed at the next meeting.