'˜I'll have your licence revoked... I'm the deputy mayor of Fareham' - what councillor who was forced to resign told taxi firm

Chris Wood, formerly Stubbington ward member, resigned ‘within minutes’ of a taxi firm making a complaint to Fareham Borough Council.

As reported by The News, he quit after the firm complained he threatened its licence.

Now it can be revealed the complaint, released under Freedom of Information law, alleged the firm did not take him ‘due to his perceived aggressive nature’.

It added: ‘(The firm) notified Mr Wood that if he had a complaint he would have to go through the standard procedure of emailing his grievance to our customer care team. It was at this point that the threat was made when he said: “I don’t need to (email with a complaint) I’ll just go to the licensing panel and have your licence revoked…I’m the deputy Mayor of Fareham”.’

Mr Wood, who defected from Ukip to join the Conservative Party, was told he had no option but to resign.

Council leader Sean Woodward said: ‘It was completely unacceptable behaviour for a councillor, for a deputy mayor, and I told him I thought he had no option other than to resign and if he had not, I would have had no option but to suspend him from the Conservative group and have him expelled from the Conservative Party.

‘His position became absolutely untenable and I had to take that swift action.’

He added: ‘I called him into see me within minutes of being advised and he’d resigned within an hour.’