A council forked out £72,000 on an investigation into its sacked town clerk.

Seaford Town Council spent the money on a probe into Sam Shippen, the authority’s former town clerk, who was sacked for gross misconduct earlier this year.

Finance papers reveal the council turned to the services of professional consultants for the investigation, which came around after allegations of bullying and incompetence.

Norman Baker, MP for Lewes, said the council was “out of control” in February and called for the resignation of Ms Shippen.

However she stood her ground until she was finally dismissed in September after revelations about a VAT blunder, when the council missed out on the opportunity to claim back VAT worth £340,000 on building work at Seaford Head Golf Course.

Councillor Sam Adeniji said the money spent on the investigation into the town clerk could have been better spent providing “much needed services for the town”.

He added: “The facts are the town clerk was employed by the previous administration and before many of us were elected as councillors.

“The alleged bullying occurred before many of us were elected as councillors, hence the council had to engage the services of an external consultant to investigate the allegations.

“If the previous administration had exercised due diligence and investigated many of these allegations many years ago, Seaford Town Council may not have incurred such huge cost.”

Independent councillor Anthony White said although £72,000 was a significant sum, the figure was a “drop in the ocean” if investigators and professionals did not address the “financial predicament the council would be in” if action was not taken.

He said: “This isn’t something now where you can say, after four months, ‘everything is fine now, let’s carry on’.

“It’s going to take 18 months to two years before things settle down. The investigation has been vital to the running of the council.

“I was the one who put a stop to what was going on with the town clerk previously and showed people what was going on. It’s a rabbit warren – but all I did was kick over the leaves and tell people where to look.”