Councillor John Power has dismissed moves to discipline him as a 'serious misuse of council procedures'.

The former Lord Mayor of Oxford has told Oxfordshire County Council, of which he is a member, that he will have nothing to do with an inquiry into claims that he told a public meeting about a confidential bid for a former old people's home.

Mr Power, who led the campaign to stop the closure of the Oseney Court old people's home in Botley Road, dismissed the investigation into his behaviour as "a classic case of naming and shaming, and then gathering the evidence".

The council launched an investigation into claims that Mr Power told a public meeting that a housing association had bid £2m to buy Oseney Court.

Mr Power said in a letter to the County Solicitor, Chris Impey: "My solicitor has advised me not to reply to the allegation, as the county council have already denied me due process and natural justice. Additionally, I have been advised that in the course of this incident you have defamed me."

He went on to warn: "On the latter there will be some future correspondence."

Mr Power said he first learned that he faced disciplinary proceedings from an Oxford Mail reporter and was later appalled to read Mr Impey being quoted in the Mail as saying, "Broadly speaking, we can reprimand him or name or shame him."

A panel of six councillors has been set up to investigate the allegations and report to the council's operations sub-committee.

Mr Impey said: "The process is not a denial of natural justice in any way. I think we have gone through the process quite properly."

The County Solicitor said he had in fact written to Mr Power before any newspaper article appeared.