CONCERNS over whether some of the 50,000 e-mails the council receives from the public each week are going into a 'black hole' have been calmed by the authority.

Liberal Democrat members accused the council of 'gagging' them by 'refusing to allow' their questions on a number of issues, including the borough's budget, at last Monday's full council meeting at the Town Hall.

The council also withdrew a motion on housing infrastructure.

The town's Liberal Democrat chairman Cllr Ian Marks said party members have been left 'very angry'.

The former council leader added: "The questions were submitted on time but were directed into the council's 'spam inbox'.

"Copies sent to councillors Barr and Walker arrived immediately after being sent and an e-mail sent to the council's chief executive, from the same e-mail account just 17 minutes earlier, arrived perfectly satisfactorily.

"It is not our fault they were treated as spam and the council should accept them as valid questions.

"We have to assume the council is looking for ways to avoid answering our questions on the budget covering waste treatment, adult social care, the proposed housing company, other questions on green bin charges, the libraries working group and HS2 and salt mines.

"The council is saying that it would not have long enough to prepare answers.

"They still had two days when the mistake came to light and in any case you would have hoped they had answers to the budget questions already.

"If the questions had been taken at the meeting we would have accepted written answers anyway.

"How many e-mails from the public are going into the same black hole?

"Are these treated as unacceptable in the same way?"

The authority has responded to the criticism.

A spokesman said: "Cllr Marks submitted his question via his personal e-mail account, not his council taxpayer-funded e-mail account.

"We receive 50,000 e-mails from the public every week and it takes a little time to sort these to ensure they reach the intended recipient – this is why it missed the deadline.

"The motion was deemed by the council solicitor to be one that could potentially pre-determine planning decisions and it was on legal advice to withdraw.

"The matter was also was also explained to the Liberal Democrat member.

"The council takes security and information governance very seriously and has modern, up-to-date and efficient IT systems."