The chairman of a watchdog committee has been urged to quit after a council meeting descended into “chaos” and several councillors walked out in protest.

Cranbrook Cllr Seán Holden (Con), who chairs the overview and scrutiny committee at Tunbridge Wells council, is accused of launching a “diatribe” and making the work of the committee “impossible”.

Several councillors in the administration now think he’s unfit for the job and want him removed. But his Tory colleagues argue he purely "holding them [the council] to account".

The committee meets regularly to scrutinise the work and decisions of the cabinet - with this meeting being called to discuss the governing coalition's plan for the year.

Council leader Ben Chapelard (Lib Dem) and Cllr Hugo Pound (Lab), cabinet member for housing and planning, were invited to the committee to present the plan.

Cllr Chapelard described it as a “an interim working document on what we want to achieve as a partnership going forward whilst we draw up some longer term ambitions for the council and the borough.”

Members discussed the plan for about an hour on Monday before Cllr Holden spoke.

He accused the governing coalition of “hijacking” the decisions of the previous administration and taking credit for schemes enacted before the coalition took over.

The council had a Conservative administration for 24 years until May last year when the party lost nine seats.

They were replaced by the ‘Borough Partnership’ - a coalition of the Liberal Democrats, the Tunbridge Wells Alliance, and the Labour Party.

“This plan for the borough is nothing of the sort, it’s not a plan, it contains no proposals of substance, its supposed successes are the achievements and programmes of others, and it offers our residents nothing more than another year of non-delivery,” Cllr Holden added.

Cllr Brendon Le Page interjected, taking issue with the chairman’s conduct.

“The overview and scrutiny committee is specifically required to keep party politics out of the room," he said.

"I respectfully request that you not try to score political points on behalf of the Conservative Party."

Cllr Shadi Rogers added “you’re wasting our time,” accusing Cllr Holden of asking questions on finances which had already been answered.

Defending his line of questioning, Cllr Holden responded: “If we’re going to have a scrutiny committee that doesn’t scrutinise and just congratulates the cabinet we may as well not have a scrutiny committee.”

Shortly after, Cllr Holden continued criticising the coalition’s plans, saying: “It looks busy busy busy, but it’s just busy doing nothing.”

As Cllr Holden spoke, the monitoring officer attempted to raise a point of order, and other members gestured to Cllr Holden to call the officer to speak.

When he didn’t, Cllr Pound slapped the table and left the room, describing the chair’s conduct as “absolutely ridiculous.”

“After this diatribe from you, I feel that you are not capable of chairing the overview and scrutiny committee properly”

Cllr Brendon Le Page (LibDem) also hit out at Cllr Holden’s conduct.

“After this diatribe from you, I feel that you are not capable of chairing the overview and scrutiny committee properly,” he said.

The council’s monitoring officer, responsible for the procedure of council meetings, also weighed in, saying “I do feel that this meeting has fallen into chaos.

“It is not good for the reputation of the council, this is webcast and is being seen,” she added.

After Cllr Holden defended his conduct as simply part of the debate required on the committee, Cllrs Le Page and Marguerita Morton also got up and left.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Morton (LibDem) said: “I thought the only way to express my disgust at what was going on was to just get up and leave.”

She added that his behaviour was “disgraceful”, and described the evening as “the worst meeting I’ve been in for probably about ten years or so.”

Cllr Shadi Rogers (Lab), said after the meeting “I was very close to leaving myself.”

“I think his group leader councillor Dawlings should act and do something about it, and if he isn’t prepared to then we will figure it out by another means,” she added.

Cllr Holden was approved as chair by the full council, after the governing coalition gave the Conservative group the right to the chair, and Conservative group leader, and former council leader, Tom Dawlings, chose Cllr Holden for the position.

After the meeting, Cllr Pound, the first to to walk out, said he was “appalled” by Cllr Holden’s behaviour.

He walked out of the meeting “because I did not attend to hear a political speech, I attended to answer questions and enquiries about the forward plan for the council,” he said.

“I really don’t think he can carry on as chair, not after last night.

“The leader of the Conservatives has twice been warned about his [Holden’s] behaviour, and he hasn’t done anything about it, I’d love to know whether he’s going to do something about it after last night.

“If he doesn’t do something about Seán Holden this time then he clearly doesn’t take Overview & Scrutiny seriously,” he added.

“What they don’t like was that I was showing up their so-called borough plan as a complete political fraud”

Conservative leader Tom Dawlings, however, is defiant, arguing “Seán does an effective job of holding them to account.”

“Coalition members protest when Seán shines a light on their failures.

“Without the two Conservatives at the meeting on Monday, scrutiny would have consisted of little more than members of the ruling parties congratulating the administration on a job well done,” he added.

Cllr Holden himself sees nothing wrong with his conduct.

“What they don’t like was that I was showing up their so-called borough plan as a complete political fraud,” he said after the meeting.

“Now that they’ve got a Conservative chairman, they don’t like it because I scrutinise them, I hold them to account.

“If they were to remove me as the chairman, it would show that they’re afraid of being scrutinised, they’re afraid of being challenged in their policies, they don’t want people to know what they’re doing, and they’re trying to cover up their failings.”

“I’m challenging them, politically they’re being exposed, and they don’t like it.”