PARISH pump politics have come to a juddering halt in a tiny North Yorkshire community after the parish council resigned en bloc.

Four councillors including chairman Alan Gough quit in protest over the government's new code of conduct. A fifth resigned because of ill-health, leaving grass roots politics in the communities of Arkendale, Coneythorpe and Clareton near Boroughbridge, in limbo.

Mr Gough and colleagues Mike Rickards, Iris Nichols and David Cox all resigned in protest. The resignation on health grounds of Coun John Milburn has left the area without a parish council.

Mr Gough, who has served for more than ten years, said: "I don't know how they have the gall at Westminster to impose rules of conduct for parish councillors, with some of the conduct we have seen at parliamentary level.

"People serve on parish councils because they want to help their community."

He paid tribute to clerk Belinda Wilson, who had planned to step down but is staying on for a while "to keep things ticking over."

Mrs Wilson, who has served for eight years, does not yet know if there will be candidates coming forward to form a new council. If they do, an election will be held next month.

She plans to stay on until immediately after an election, by which time she hopes a replacement has been found.

John Findlay, chief executive of the National Association of Local Councils, said the reality of the new code was far different to suggestions that it was draconian.

Responding to criticism in the local government magazine First, he says: "There is some understandable concern, but generally the code reinforces what has been happening in local councils for years. In my experience when councillors have the code explained to them, opposition melts away."

Mr Gough disagrees, and sees the latest legislation as nothing more than another attack on the rural voice. "Parish councils have been speaking out for people long before Westminster came on the scene," he said