A DISPUTE at a Keighley Town Council meeting over whether a committee vacancy should be filled that evening triggered a heated exchange, with one councillor angrily walking out.

Councillors were informed of the vacancy on their human resources committee at the meeting last Thursday.

Acting chairman and deputy town mayor Cllr Amjid Ahmed said he did not want a vote that evening on who should be appointed to fill this vacancy, because the matter had not been included on the agenda for that night's meeting.

His stance was supported by Cllr Mark Curtis.

But locum town clerk Anne Wilson said even though it was the case this item was not on the agenda, it would be advisable to appoint a new councillor for the HR committee, given this body's current heavy workload.

Councillors Julie Adams, Kaneez Akthar and Michael Westerman strongly supported going ahead with a vote to find a new committee member.

Cllr Westerman argued there was a precedent for the council making a decision on an item even when it had not been on the agenda,

"Why are you not allowing this to be put to the vote by elected members when a precedent has been set?" he asked.

Cllr Ahmed said: "I've made my decision, we're not going to take a vote on this. We're going to move on."

At this point Cllr Adams stood up and walked out of the meeting, saying: "This has everything to do with the Labour Party."