A STOURPORT councillor has defended his record as mayor.

Resentment over the fact Stephen Clee does not live in Stourport re-emerged when he was elected deputy mayor at the town's annual meeting.

Labour's Reg Knott renewed his displeasure at the choice of Mr Clee as mayor last year and said it had been "morally wrong" because he lived in Bewdley.

He added: "I would have thought the Conservative administration would have learnt their lesson following all the negative comments there have been about Mr Clee over the last 12 months."

His comments were backed by Labour colleague Vi Higgs.

Councillor Peter Barrass, the only Liberal Democrat councillor, said, however, Mr Clee's enthusiasm "had brought a lot of life to the chamber."

Mr Barrass called for the election of future mayors to be a matter for agreement between all parties rather than a ruling group.

Mr Clee was elected as deputy by a majority of 9-4 with the four Labour councillors objecting.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Knott said although, legally, Mr Clee was entitled to be mayor it was morally wrong because Stourport needed a mayor who lived in the town.

He added many people had told him they were furious the mayor did not live in Stourport, in particular business people angered by Mr Clee's choice of a Bewdley venue for the mayor's ball.

He claimed Mr Clee - who is also a Bewdley town councillor, a Wyre Forest district councillor and a Worcestershire county councillor - had not fulfilled his mayoral duties adequately.

He said: "He has often not attended Stourport engagements himself and either his deputy, Allan Wood, or Councillor Don Giles has represented him.

"I don't think it has ever happened before that a third councillor has had to step in to help. The mayor and deputy have always managed the engagements between them."

He added that some engagements were not connected with Stourport.

He said: "For instance, I noticed one engagement to attend the opening of Norwich Library. That was obviously a county council engagement and nothing to do with Stourport.

"It is all very well him saying he has attended 140 engagements during his term but a lot of those are county council engagements."

Mr Clee said: "Because of my connections throughout the county I have been able to get invitations to a lot more events to represent Stourport, than ever came Stourport's way in the past."

He said he did not know whether he was invited to the Norwich event as a county or Stourport town councillor.

Mr Clee said: "Invitations come in to the town clerk's office and they tell me about them and I accept them."

He added: "I have been in Stourport every night in the last week canvassing on people's doorsteps for the election and nobody has mentioned to me they are unhappy because I live in Bewdley."