Two parish councillors have been told they could face financial penalties after a request for support for a footpath survey was declared illegal.

St Cuthbert Out Parish councillors voted last month to ask its representative on the Coxley Playing Field Trust to ask for a survey to be carried out on the land.

The survey would have been carried out by Sustrans, the cycle path campaign group to see the land was suitable for a cycle path.

However a meeting of the parish council was told this week by its clerk that the vote was illegal – because the people proposing it had made their minds up about the issue before the meeting started and they could face a financial penalty.

The clerk, Angela Pearce said: "If you have pre-determined views, you have to leave the room and declare an interest."

As one of the voters in favour of the motion, Councillor Jim Reeves was a member of the Coxley to Wells Cycle Path group, the vote was deemed to be illegal.

Councillor Helen Reynolds, who proposed the motion, told the meeting: "I had absolutely no intention of asking anyone to do anything illegal.

"I said it would be a good idea to get a free survey of the land."

The discussion over whether councillors could face a financial penalty over the vote brought an angry response from Councillor Marianne Adams, who seconded the original motion.

She queried whether the motion should ever have been presented in the first place.

"If I can't come to the table with my own ideas I don't see any point in being on the parish council."

Told by chairman Sandra Ford that she should not get angry, Mrs Adams said: "I think I have a right to be slightly angry under the circumstances."

Councillors were told that they could not tell their representative on the Playing Field Trustees how to vote and that motion would be presented again at the next meeting for a fresh discussion.