A TOWN'S mayor has revealed he came close to surrendering his chains of office during the past six months due to "sheer mental and physical stress".

Councillor Graham Mitchell has carried out his role as Keighley mayor without a full team of council officers since the town clerk retired in June.

The same period coincided with an independent audit into the council’s finances, which reached damning conclusions about its practices.

"I have been required to undertake far more work than any mayor ought to be doing, and my health has suffered," he said.

A new clerk, appointed to fill the vacancy, starts work on December 10.

Keighley Town Council will formally respond to the auditors' report on its governance and handling of public money at an extraordinary meeting in the town hall at 6.30pm on Tuesday December 2.

Councillors who were members of the management and staffing committee between June 2012 and March 2013 have faced a call to resign in the wake of the report.

But Cllr Mitchell said he would not consider resigning because of an electronic petition containing names of people with little knowledge of what they were signing from as far afield as Hungary, the US and Australia.

"when there is a valid hard copy petition in Oakworth Co-op, signed by Oakworth residents, calling on me to resign my seat in Oakworth ward, then that will be the time to stand down."

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