Even by the extraordinary standards set by what has become known as 'Battleborough Town Council', Thursday's gathering hit new heights.

The evening featured clashes between councillors, new allegations about members being spied on, more threats of legal action, jeering from the public and a dramatic walkout.

The extraordinary - in both senses of the word - meeting had been called to address a familiar list of shortcomings at the authority: infighting, administrative backlogs and staffing pressures that have earned Attleborough the unwanted reputation as Britain's most rancorous council.

It ended with none of those issues resolved, but with yet more fuel poured on the fire as the proceedings were consumed by yet another scandal: claims that a councillor's emails had been secretly monitored, read and deleted by someone within the authority itself.

The issue had arisen the previous evening, when an email appeared to be sent from a member's official council address without his knowledge.

The message, sent from the account of Daniel Burcham - a councillor who has been at the centre of much of the tensions of the authority as the de facto leader of one of its factions - to fellow member Jacob Allen, was in response to a routine query and read simply: "Dear Cllr Allen, it is included in the reports."

The email in question (Image: Supplied)

When the provenance of the email was queried by Mr Burcham himself, the town clerk, initially replied she had "absolutely no idea" how a message had been sent on his behalf.

An hour later she sent a follow-up email to all councillors saying she had "got to the bottom of the issue".

The clerk explained that as the council's main........

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