A CONTROVERSIAL councillor has been suspended for a month after emailing derogatory remarks about a former council employee to all members.

Middlesbrough councillor Joan McTigue was hit with the heavy sanction after she refused to appear before the authority's standards panel to explain her behaviour.

Now working for consultants Halcrow, Paul Rabbits sent an email to all of the town's councillors inviting them to 'spread the word' about a consultation for a proposed North Middlesbrough Accessibility Project.

But the feisty councillor's response started with 'you must realise that the only word I would spread, after seeing your efforts on my ward, would be to avoid it like the plague'.

The email was the culmination of a bitter row between the pair that started over plans for a BMX track in the councillor's Beechwood ward in 2004.

Yesterday, (TUES) a three man panel decided Mrs McTigue had overstepped the mark by including all other councillors in the email.

Panel chairman Geoff Fell, who is an independent member, said the Coun McTigue was in breach of the council's code of conduct.

"The comments made by Mrs McTigue do no credit to her. They were derogatory and impertinent," he said.

"I think it is time that she put behind her the events from the BMX park because she has taken them as far as she can."

Coun McTigue has now lost her access to council facilities and around £500 of her annual allowance.

Speaking after the hearing, Mrs McTigue said: "Is this month's ban going to get me to change my opinion of this former council employee, that's the question? I look on my job as a councillor as trying to get the best for the people in my ward and I don't think that happened in relation to the BMX part.

"However, I must be the type of councillor that the people of the ward want because they re-elected me again in May.

"I'm not in the game of wasting the council's money and that is why I refused the offer of a solicitor to represent me at the hearing. The last time I appeared before the Standards Board of England that hearing cost the Middlesbrough taxpayer 15,000 and all for nothing because I wasn't sanctioned."

Coun McTigue, who was cleared of bringing the council into disrepute, intends to appeal against her ban.