A complaint lodged against a priest for her alleged involvement in a petition criticising a community group's secretary has been withdrawn.

Dominic Sheeran, chairman of Ravenscliffe and Greengates Association (RGA), confirmed the retraction in a letter to the Ravenscliffe Christian Group's grand council chairman, the Reverend David Muschamp.

He penned the apology after learning his association had been misled about the Reverend Doreen Morrison's role with the petition which attacked RGA secretary, Audrey Raistrick.

The petition, which around 100 Ravenscliffe residents signed, said Mrs Raistrick didn't represent all the views of the estate and other opinions should be heard.

After details of the petition were released, the RGA accused the reverend of organising the petition and a formal complaint was sent to her superiors in the Ravenscliffe Christian Group.

Mr Sheeran said: "The executive of the RGA decided to withdraw the complaint against the Reverend Morrison because we received information that she wasn't the actual author of the petition.

"Audrey Raistrick only gives the views of the RGA with the executive's consent.

"If other community groups want to give their opinions, I can't see a problem with that.

"If the author, or authors, of this petition think the biggest problem facing the estate is a 72-year-old pensioner then they've got their priorities badly wrong."

The Reverend Muschamp confirmed he had received the retraction but added he didn't want to make any further comment on the issue.

But Audrey Raistrick remained upset over the whole incident. She said: "The whole situation is a mess of pottage.

"I'm disillusioned with a woman who signs a petition even though she's never met me and has only been living on the estate for a few months.

"I invited her round to my house to meet me but she never returned my calls. In my opinion it was a serious error of judgement for her to sign the petition. It gave the petition a credibility it should never had."

The Reverend Doreen Morrison declined to comment.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.