A TOWN clerk has warned that "personal conflict" between councillors is harming the authority's ability to meet targets.

In a report to members of Lyme Regis Town Council's strategy and finance committee, John Wright said improvements to the authority's reputation during 2015, when the new council was appointed, has not continued this year. Concerns were also raised about how much time officers are spending on preparing meetings - with 52 scheduled for 2016.

The report also highlights a member of council staff has been dismissed for theft, while there was "one instance of money in the office that couldn't be accounted for".

Mr Wright said: "The town council's reputation, which had been damaged by member disagreement, had also improved. Member-officer relations also improved. Improvements made in 2015 have not been sustained throughout 2016 and this has impacted on the council's ability to achieve its stated objectives.

"Personal conflict between some members transgresses policy differences and has become evident in council chamber debate and in social media exchanges. These actions impair good decision-making and damage the council's reputation and image.

"On occasions, members have made decisions without thinking through the implications of those decisions. As a consequence, a significant amount of member and officer time has been spent managing those decisions."

Mr Wright also said that some councillors "appear to want to embarrass the council".

He added: "Inevitably the views of 14 independent members will be disparate but comments made by some members go against the grain of what the council is trying to achieve and sometimes translate into negative headlines about the council and the town.

"On occasions, some members appear to want to embarrass the council and its officers by raising issues which can't reasonably be answered at council meetings. The majority of these issues could easily be resolved outside the council chamber."

Speaking at last week's committee meeting, Mayor of Lyme Regis, Cllr Owen Lovell, said: "I do wish and hope that reading this, any member will take note it is a downside for this council."

Addressing the issue of conflict between councillors, Mr Wright added: "Some comments that are made in the council chamber are completely unnecessary."

Mr Wright's report also highlighted that 52 scheduled council meetings for this year, along with 12 working groups "consumes a significant amount of member and officer time".

He added: "There are also officer failings.

"These include delays in the delivery of projects, insufficient management of external consultants and, on occasions, non-adherence to human resources policies and procedures."

Cllr Brian Larcombe said he was "becoming increasingly concerned about the working environment" of council staff.