Taila Taylor, the deputy mayor of Attleborough who is standing in Thursday’s county council elections, departed from her role as the clerk of Great Ellingham Parish Council following a spectacular falling-out with the authority.

Letters seen by this newspaper show the council raised concerns with Ms Taylor about her conduct and performance before beginning disciplinary proceedings against her.

In one letter to her, the parish council said it had been forced to cancel a meeting at short notice because she had not told members she could not attend as she was at an awards ceremony in London where she was being celebrated for her efforts as a councillor.

Ms Taylor with friends and family - two of whom are also councillors - at the awards night (Image: LGIU)

Just over a month after that incident, the council wrote to Ms Taylor again to say it was starting disciplinary proceedings against her.

Then, three weeks later it wrote again to inform her she was being dismissed for gross misconduct as her "conduct and performance was still highly unsatisfactory".

Ms Taylor, who is a member of Attleborough and Breckland Council, has robustly denied this account.

She insists she resigned from her post at Great Ellingham after receiving a letter informing her of the disciplinary process and before the council claims it dismissed her.

She says her time at Great Ellingham was affected by her grandfather developing a life-threatening medical condition and says she stopped taking a salary from the council.

Ms Taylor was grilled by the public over the donation saga at a recent Attleborough meeting (Image: Henry Durand)

The row brings fresh scrutiny on Ms Taylor, who is already facing questions from election rivals over what happened to a £10,000 payment they say she pledged to donate to charity.

She received the money in 2021 from Attleborough Town Council to settle a legal dispute. The £20,000 settlement included a clause that half the money should be donated to charity.

Ms Taylor has declined to confirm whether she has done so but has accused the council of not fulfilling its side of the agreement, which she says frees her from the obligation.

Ms Taylor, who is standing as the Conservative candidate for the Attleborough division at the county council elections this week, was appointed Great Ellingham clerk on February 15, 2024.

The job involves organising meetings, preparing agendas, recording minutes and managing the authority's finances and legal obligations.

Council minutes show that she was paid £338 a month for the position. She stopped receiving these payments in June 2024, although she remained in the post.

Matters came to a head in November 2024, when the council cancelled a planned........

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