A FORMER Mayor of Middlesbrough has been removed from council office after failing to attend meetings for six months.

This is the second time the socialist Independent councillor, Frank Gill, has fallen foul of the rules governing attendance.

In early 2004, when he was a Labour group member, he was suspended by the party for three months due to his poor record.

Mr Gill, a local councillor for 17 years, said it was his disillusionment at the way the town was been run that influenced his latest decision not to attend.

The council confirmed the vacancy in the Middlehaven Ward and a by-election is likely to be held, possibly in March.

Mr Gill was mayor of Middlesbrough in 1998-99 and is a former chairman of the planning committee. He was a Cleveland county councillor from 1989 to 1996, when he joined the new unitary Middlesbrough Council.

He said: "I do not support the elected mayoral system. I feel totally unable to act in the unnecessary demolition of 400 houses in the ward. I feel the Labour Party has lost the plot."