. A council meeting, had one representative accusing another of witchcraft, apparently Lisa Chambers had interrupted Pat McCloud, who then said, "How could she possibly know what I was about to say, how could anyone know until I finished, you know they used to burn witches at the stake for having such abilities."

 McCloud was trying to make the point that if she was interrupting him, it must be because she's a witch, not because he's predictable or repetitive or anything. This point was not found amusing by anyone in the council meeting however.

 Following the dispute, the council's standards committee got involved and found McCloud guilty of making the accusation -- and THEN the Adjudication Panel for England overturned the whole thing after an investigative process that cost over £3,000!

 Chris Hughes, chairman of the Adjudication Panel for England, said that although the comments were inadvisable, they did not constitute personal abuse.

Local pagans have said they are disappointed that the reference to witchcraft was thought to be an insult by both Cllr Chambers, who does not practise witchcraft, and the council’s standards committee.

Robin Herne, the chairman of the Ipswich Pagan Community, said: "It's not actually an insult to suggest that somebody has pagan beliefs. It may be inaccurate but it's not like saying she's a baby-eater". Really, what's more disconcerting is that taxpayers spent three grand on this nonsense, as well as £1,600 on an independent investigator and an estimated £1,500 on the adjudication panel hearing, there were unconfirmed costs of an investigation by a council monitoring officer and the original standards committee hearing.

Cllr McCloud, who initially gave Cllr Chambers an apology before deciding to appeal, said: “I think it is a shame that we are wasting so much money on it, but as far as I was concerned I had to appeal. “The standards committee said it was defamatory and insulting to her and found me guilty of treating a fellow member with disrespect.

Cllr Chambers, 39, told the East Anglian Daily Times: “I would not normally go to these lengths but there was a catalogue of issues and I just felt enough was enough. I would have shrugged it off but it was one thing in a line of things. I would not say it was a waste of money – you do need to go somewhere to get these issues sorted out. I hope we can continue to work together for the good of the village.”

A spokesperson for Forest Heath district council said: “Forest Heath district council continues to have every confidence in the integrity of its standards committee and in the integrity of the decision making process in this case.

“We will take a close look at how our panels are selected to see if any improvements are necessary.”