WHAT Spectator described as “the long and sorry saga” involving the former town clerk of Northallerton, Sue Fraser, seems to have ended with her departure but as he points out we are none the wiser for councillors have remained “resolutely tight-lipped” (D&S Times, Sept 11).

In the past you have published letters from me about the secrecy endemic in local government and this is a first class example.

Readers might think this saga was something to do with staff relations. I know that when there were indeed issues with staff some time ago, the matter was resolved comparatively quickly.

So, as Spectator seems to suspect, the six-month suspension involved much more than that, and as the council pointed out, the clerk’s departure had nothing to do with what had been reported in the press.

More than five years ago, I complained to the council about its clerk, but the complaints procedure I was offered was unacceptable for it involved the very people implicated in my complaint.

A new council was elected and offered an improved procedure, but I was not happy with the initial internal investigation nor the subsequent “independent” investigation, and my enquiries of the Department of Communities revealed that the council was in breach of the Localism Act.

Despite all this, a recent renewed attempt to have the matter investigated independently of the council was again rejected by the council as a whole.

The council’s handling of my case and that involving the clerk has been shocking and completely unacceptable, and that “the resolutely tight lips” has been all about.

I have advised the council that when I have recovered from a recent operation I will make formal complaints about it and some individual councillors to the district council. Perhaps then the truth will out.

David Severs, Northallerton