Get yourselves sorted out, now - for the sake of Wantage's future!

That's the blunt message to feuding town councillors from their outgoing clerk, Adrian Wheldon, who is stepping down after just three months looking after the town's affairs.

Frustrated and fed up by the constant sniping and animosity at meetings, he resigned within days of taking up the £17,665 post on April 1.

Now, as he works out his notice - his last council meeting is on June 29 - Mr Wheldon, a top departmental manager in the last Government and a business high-flyer, has presented the council with a blueprint for internal change, which, he says, is vital for its own future, and efficient running of the town. His confidential report was adopted unanimously behind closed doors at a meeting of the management, policy and finance committee on Monday night, after a move by former Mayor, Jim Moley, to have it brought on to the open agenda was defeated.

Mr Wheldon's predecessor, Chris Cook, left last January claiming the "constant bickering" between councillors made the job impossible.

Already, a replacement clerk, Athene (OK) Mitchell, has been appointed and officially takes over from Mr Wheldon at the end of the month.

Mrs Mitchell worked as a superintendent registrar in Wantage some years ago, but later transferred her duties to the Bicester area.

Mr Wheldon, who once worked in the Cabinet office at the Department of Trade and Industry, and retired as Rutherford Laboratory's director of commercial operations with a £20m turnover, said he went into the clerk's post as "an innocent", believing he could put something back into the town where he has lived for 30 years.

But he was shocked by the work he and his other part-time staff were expected to cope with. He said: "The office is absolutely submerged in trivia and paper-shuffling - the load is monstrous. I think I spend only five per cent of my time doing what I should be doing."

Mr Wheldon insists there is no personal animosity between him and the councillors, several of whom he has known personally for many years, but he has strong words for the "intense personal behaviour" of some members towards each other and outside bodies.

But, he said: "Collectively they play a kind of game and it stultifies the discussion of the council. It makes me very unhappy to sit through meetings, and I sit there and think 'get a life'. The council could operate so much better if they didn't do this. It's foolishness," he said.

"I didn't feel I wanted to carry on, taking decisions without authority. I was doing it for £4 an hour as a high-rate taxpayer, and frankly it's not worth a candle."

Mr Wheldon said he believed the council would now take the advice being offered to them to streamline their structure and operation under his successor, Mrs Mitchell, whom he described as "a real winner."

He added: "I think she will do a superb job, and I think she will get these people under control very quickly."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.