Complaints against two leading members of Witney Town Council have been received by the organisation charged with investigating conduct in local government.

The Standards Board for England has confirmed it has received complaints against the town's mayor, Chrissie Curry, and town and West Oxfordshire district councillor David Harvey.

But the row has deepened, with Ms Curry and Mr Harvey claiming to have made their own complaints to the board about two former councillors - Paul Slammin and David Nicholson - who left the council following a failed vote of no confidence in Ms Curry and Mr Harvey.

The standards board was unable to confirm who had reported Ms Curry and Mr Harvey, but former town clerk Pat Nevins previously told the Oxford Mail she had lodged a complaint.

Mrs Nevins resigned last month, citing a range of issues - including the hiring of a firm of private detectives to question council staff.

It emerged this week that Mrs Nevins was herself being investigated by the council over allegations of gross misconduct, following claims that she had bullied members of staff. The disciplinary proceedings against her were concluded after she resigned.

The standards board is an independent body which investigates complaints against councillors.

Its spokesman Becky Jones said the complaints against Ms Curry and Mr Harvey covered an "alleged failure to treat others with respect", and of "using their positions improperly to confer or secure an advantage or disadvantage to others".

The board must now decide whether to pass the complaint to West Oxfordshire District Council, or take the more serious step of investigating the pair itself through an adjudication panel. If it takes the latter course, the pair face a maximum sanction of being disqualified from office for five years.

Mr Slammin welcomed the start of what he called a "proper investigation" into affairs at Witney town hall.

He said: "This is something which should worry the council. It's very serious."

He likened the row to America's Watergate political scandal in the 1970s, adding: "It's Witneygate. The more you look into it, the worse it gets."

In a joint statement, Ms Curry and Mr Harvey defended the council's decision to investigate Mrs Nevins, which they said "related to problems which surfaced in November 2006, when several members of staff complained to the mayor of being bullied".

They added: "At around the same time, several other disturbing incidents came to light that called into question the ability of the town clerk to do her job properly".

They said private detectives had been called in to carry out a "fact-finding exercise," adding: "It was necessary and appropriate to use an external company, as this ensured a totally unprejudiced viewpoint."