A parish council clerk bullied by the new Lord Mayor of Canterbury has been awarded almost £80,000 by an employment judge.

Liliana Jokic made a claim for unfair constructive dismissal against Sturry Parish Council, where she worked with the then chairman Cllr Heather Taylor, who was last week installed as the city’s new civic head.

She alleged Cllr Taylor and other councillors had harassed and intimidated her and the council had then failed to properly deal with her grievance when she formally complained.

The judgement follows a two-day hearing last month, during which employment judge Martin Kurrein heard how the parish council had been divided by different factions.

He concluded that on two occasions in 2009 the conduct of Cllr Taylor towards Mrs Jokic “fell below the standard expected of someone in her position” and on another occasion “created an intimidating, hostile and offensive environment”.

But he dismissed claims by Mrs Jokic that fellow parish councillors Steven Birch and Ashley Bubb had bullied her, concluding their criticism of her during a meeting had been “entirely reasonable” and “nothing more than the rough and tumble of elections for political office”.

But he said Mrs Jokic had a valid grievance which the parish council had failed to deal with in a reasonable and timely manner.

He added: “The inaction by the council was of such seriousness as to amount to a fundamental breach of employment contract.”

Mrs Jokic, 60, from Westbere, who is now living in Serbia, had been clerk for 15 years and earning £37,000 a year when she went on long-term sick leave due to stress after Cllr Taylor was re-elected chairman of the council in May last year.

She then resigned as clerk in September.

The majority of the financial payout is made up of compensation for loss of earnings since she resigned and for loss of future earnings because of her age.

She said she was pleased “justice has been done”.

She said: “It has been a very stressful time for me and I feel sad that it came to this after serving the parish council and public for 15 years.

“I would like to thank the people of Sturry, my colleagues and Sturry parish councillors, past and present for their continued support.”

Cllr Taylor did not wish to comment on the outcome of the tribunal but the new clerk to the parish, Jeremy Bellamy, said he expected the bulk of the award against the council to be paid by its insurers, with the remainder coming from the council’s reserves.

He said: “The main finding is that the council’s grievance procedure was inadequate and that is something we will be addressing.”