A Canterbury City Councillor has been investigated following a public complaint about his use of Twitter.

Alex Perkins, who has more than 600 followers on the blogging website under the username @AlexCanterbury, was informed of the complaint last week.

He then posted: “Oh, did I mention? As we speak a council panel is investigating an anonymous complaint from some cretin about my tweeting!”

Messages of support flooded in for the opposition leader, who has long used Twitter to communicate with the public about council issues, local and national politics and his love of Arsenal.

He said: “I received a letter about the complaint to begin with and was told a committee would meet behind closed doors to make a decision.

“I wasn’t allowed to know the result, who the complainant was or even mount a defence.

“I’m pretty sure it’s somebody from the East Midlands who put in the complaint and I hear it only took the committee 10 minutes to decide there was no charge to answer.

“Other councillors have been subject to complaints like this in the past, which were also both dismissed, so it’s nothing new.”

But the Wincheap ward Liberal Democrat admits he was undeterred by the complaint and will continue to urge other councillors to use Twitter.

He added: “What I am annoyed about is that public money and time has been wasted on this. I can accept as councillors we’re accountable to the electorate and that they, the local media and other councillors are free to scrutinise me.

"But, I’m not accountable to somebody who lives more than 100 miles away.”

Cllr Perkins expects to be notified in writing of the disciplinary committee’s soon.