The husband of the mayor of Brentwood Anne Coe has revealed he is to close his Twitter account after claiming someone had posted messages from it without his permission.
Paul Barrell, who tweets as @sadcopper, wrote at 4.03pm on December 13: "Sadly some unknown person or persons have been using my account to post twitters I have not agreed to.
"This acc will be closed."
It is not clear how many tweets were posted without the consent of Mr Barrell, an ex-policeman of Weald Road, South Weald.
A series of tweets had been issued from his account on Tuesday evening, in the wake of a meeting of Brentwood Borough Council's overview and scrutiny committee – a meeting at which the decision of the council's asset, infrastructure and localism panel to award grants totalling £54,745 to 25 of the borough's community groups was called in.
The call-in was requested by three Tory councillors, namely Will Russell, Roger McCheyne and Mrs Coe, although at the meeting all three of them voted in favour of a motion that the committee should do nothing and take the matter no further.
After the meeting, Councillor Russell Quirk, the chairman of the asset, infrastructure and localism panel, tweeted: "Tonight's O & S proceedings so spurious that even the three cllrs that started the process voted against their own motion to revise revision."
A resident, Ann Cardus, replied, saying: "Mad as badgers, the lot of 'em."
After seeing these tweets, a message was issued from Mr Barrell's account, which read: "I don't know who you are but it is important we hold all our councillors to account you are clearly stupid."
Cllr Quirk tweeted back: "Paul. Not the sort of comment people expect from the Mayor's consort.
"You should apologise to Ann Cardus."
No reply was forthcoming.
In a reference to Mr Quirk, a separate tweet from Mr Barrell's account said: "All the chairs charities and his cronies got money!"
The Gazette has attempted to contact both Mr Barrell and his wife although neither of them has yet responded.
It is unclear if the matter has been reported to Essex Police.
A spokesman said: "I am not in a position to confirm whether someone has made a complaint or not."
