Former councillors have lost out on honorary titles after the local authority’s Conservative members blocked their nominations.

The Tories at Gravesham Borough Council unanimously voted against five past representatives becoming Honoury Aldermans, branding the nominations “shabby” and “untransparent”.

However, the leader of the council, Cllr John Burden (Lab), claimed the decision was based on “personal grudges”.

At an extraordinary meeting, it was proposed that former councillors John Caller, Brian Sangha, Harold Craske, Tony Pritchard and Brian Francis should become Honoury Aldermen.

For each candidate, 19 members from the Labour group voted in favour while 15 members from the Tories voted against.

This meant it did not meet the two-thirds majority required to pass the motion - an unusual result.

Leader of the opposition, Cllr Jordan Meade, said this was because the party was “fed-up with the shabby, behind-the-scenes way” patronage was being offered.

He told KentOnline: “We are disappointed that the Labour group feel that these should be handed out exclusively to former councillors simply because they held office for a set number of years.

“The Conservative group does not believe that simply being a councillor for three terms or more should result in automatic admittance to one of the borough’s highest accolades.

“Moving these nominations forward without even providing the public with the courtesy of a biographical account of why the individual is worthy, is the type of untransparent behaviour that that we are trying to root out of the council.”

Cllr Meade (Con) added the title should also be offered to individuals who are not elected councillors but should be recognised for their community service such as volunteers.

However, according to legislation, the title of an Honorary Alderman can only be awarded to a person, who in the council’s opinion, has rendered outstanding services to the local authority as a past member.

It can only be handed out to those who have served on the council and are not currently elected councillors.

The recognition does not give the individual any right to allowances or other payments or to speak or vote in council or committee meetings. It is purely an honorary title.

"The title just shows respect for people and their hard work and it has been taken away from them…”

Cllr Meade, who is the ward councillor for Higham and Shorne, also claimed the process “wastes taxpayer money” and does not benefit residents.

He also said he could not support some of the nominations after being contacted by Higham residents who questioned their suitability “given their previous record of letting down villagers”.

However, Cllr Burden believes the group voted against the motion due to “personal grudges” and rebutted claims the process costs and wastes the council’s money.

The ward councillor for Rosherville added: “All of them lost out because of personal issues.

“There is no honour in that and I think that is a real shame.

"The title just shows respect for people and their hard work and it has been taken away from them and that is not right.

“We do not all like each other but we do not bring personal issues into anything.

“It is a show of respect and what it wrong with doing that for people?”

Former councillors John Caller, Brian Sangha and Brian Francis represented the Labour Party while Tony Pritchard was a member of the Conservatives.

The other nominee Harold Craske was also previously a Tory councillor before he left the party to set up an independent splinter group dubbed Gravesham Independent Conservatives.

The move came after he and other colleagues were rejected as candidates for the elections in 2019.