Due to a "serious safeguarding issue" two Labour councillors have resigned from Alsager Town Council as they could no "longer morally remain" as councillors.

Jo Dale and Julia Hawkins were elected as Alsager Town Councillors for the East Ward in the 2019 elections.

The two Labour councillors had not attended a town council meeting during 2021 before last Tuesday's Alsager Town Council annual meeting.

The last meeting the pair attended, which was just before Christmas, proved a fiery affair where accusations were made that councillors had been subject to slanderous online comments from fellow elected representatives.

At last Tuesday's annual meeting, fellow Labour councillor Michael Unett was elected as the new chair of Alsager Town Council for 2021/22 by his fellow councillors.

Cllr Phil Williams, of the Liberal Democrats, was elected as the vice-chair of Alsager Town Council at the same meeting.

Cllrs Dale and Hawkins felt they could not continue to be part of the council with the "current structure" as voted for at the annual meeting last week.

The pair said: "We feel that if we stayed, we would be giving our implicit support for a situation which we know to be ethically wrong."

The serious safeguarding issue that the councillors alluded to was reported by them to the relevant organisations and was partially investigated with no further action taken according to the pair.

However, given their "personal knowledge of the situation" and Mrs Hawkins' professional training and advice sought as a teacher, they felt they could not continue as town councillors.

They added: "We did the right thing by reporting the issue, we are in absolutely no doubt about that, and we would do the same again.

"Whistle-blowers for safeguarding issues should always be protected and not demonised.

"However, there have been accusations that this allegation was 'malicious, politically motivated and homophobic'. Nothing could be further from the truth."

The Labour councillors claimed that some councillors had "closed ranks" to "protect each other" on this issue and on other "serious bullying concerns raised previously".

All Alsager Town Councillors had signed an anti-bullying charter, but Mrs Dale and Mrs Hawkins were keen to stress that "actions speak louder than a pledge on a piece of paper".

The pair added: "This is not the sort of politics we want to be involved in. The situation at Handforth Parish Council is depressingly familiar to us [Alsager Town Council]."

In their two years of being councillors, they felt "due to some councillors' poor behaviour, being obstructive, misogynist, bullying and playing petty party politics", they had "consequently struggled to achieve the little that we have".

Mrs Dale and Mrs Hawkins added: "Instead of working together for our town, many of Alsager's Town Councillors are focussed on petty bureaucracy and party-political control.

"Alsager Town Council is antiquated and not fit for purpose, due to this ongoing behaviour by many councillors."

The Labour councillors wanted to "make it clear" that this had not "been the case" for the town council's Conservative councillors, and that "working with them has shown how people on opposing ends of the political spectrum can come together for the common good of the community".

They concluded: "We would like to thank Cllr Julian Goodrich, Cllr Jane Hearne and Cllr Sue Helliwell (all Conservative) as well as Labour Cllr Alison Nayling for their hard work and support during what has been an incredibly difficult time.

"We would also like to thank the town clerk (Nicola Clarke) and all the council officers. They have remained professional throughout.

"Finally, we would like to thank the people of Alsager, who put their trust in us to represent them and without whom we wouldn't have been able to achieve what we did.

"We are proud to be Alsager residents and will continue to support our town in any way we can.

"We leave with a heavy heart but with our heads held high, knowing we have done the right thing. Integrity comes above political affiliation."

Alsager Town Council has acknowledged councillor Dale and Hawkins' resignations.