One of Teignbridge Council's longest serving councillors has resigned from the Independent group in the fall-out from last week's meeting when the authority went political.

Cllr Rhona Parker, pictured, who has represented Ashburton on the council for 24 years and has been a town councillor for 26, has stood down from the group because she is 'fed up with the games that were played at the full council meeting'.

'I was not prepared to continue for four years playing games. I want to be on my own and I don't want to be answerable to anyone other than my electorate.

'Most of all I do not want to go to pre-meetings in groups where it is all decided before it goes before the council. There is no point in going to the main meeting if you have agreed it all before. I do not feel that is democratic,' said Cllr Parker.

She added that the Conservative and also the Liberal Democrat councillors would have group meetings before going into the council chamber and the decisions were made by the groups on how they were going to vote and low and behold if one of their number went the other way.

Until the last council when the Lib Dems formed a group, politics had very little part to play in the Forde House council chamber, but because of the groups, under government legislation a councillor not belonging to a group would only have the right to vote at full council meetings.

Cllr Parker, who has always been an Independent, said she was grateful that she was able to remain on the overview and scrutiny environment and community committee and on development control.

She said that at the full council meeting she thought everything would be pre-arranged and never doubted the Conservatives would jump into bed with the Lib Dems.

'There are some really good councillors there who would be better not to be tied to a group and I am sad that the executive is not shared properly with people with the expertise, rather than being sorted out before the meeting politically,' said Cllr Parker.

The leader of the Independent group, Cllr Ray Frost, who is also deputy leader of the council, said the spaces on committees had been split three ways.

'We adjusted the numbers of the overview and scrutiny committees to ensure that all members could be offered places on them, excluding the executive.

'As Independents we do not consider ourselves political and we are not having whips.

'We are a group of members who have come together to give us strength because the two political parties formed groups.

'In terms of allocation, this year things will carry on the same.

'We do not have group discipline and there is no question of people voting in certain ways.

'I would be surprised if we have pre-council meetings.

'If there was an issue that concerned us all, we perhaps would come together to thrash it out,' said Cllr Frost.

With Cllr Parker going it alone the district council's 46 members are made up of 16 Lib Dems, 14 Conservatives and 15 Independents.