A MAYOR who has called police to council meetings four times will be urged to step down tonight.

Amotion of no confidence in Labour's Godfrey Daniel will be voted on by Hastings Council following a series of incidents which opposition councillors branded "a complete waste of police time".

The Liberal Democrat motion was put forward after a number of incidents involving the mayor, including one on December 14 when he suspended a full council meeting he was chairing for 50 minutes.

He asked a man in the public gallery to leave the council chamber. When he refused, the meeting was adjourned, police were called and the man was ejected.

Lib Dem Coun Pam Brown said: "We've had four incidents when the mayor adjourned the meeting and called the police to get rid of somebody and it's just not responsible."

The December incident occurred when the council was discussing a scheme to build a new Asda superstore in Bexhill Road, St Leonards. Residents who attended the meeting were unhappy the scheme was refused on planning grounds.

The motion claims the meeting was conducted in an "unacceptable" way and calls for the mayor to be banned from chairing any future full council meetings.

The motion is unlikely to be passed as the Labour group has a majority on the council.

Coun Daniel, who also sits on East Sussex County Council, was unavailable for comment today.

But Coun Trevor Webb said the Labour group had full confidence in the mayor. He added: "This is a publicity-seeking motion and the mayor has had a great deal of provocation from the Liberal Democrat group.

"The meeting in December was suspended because a person in the public gallery was making threats to a councillor."

Last September the mayor was involved in a row over council meeting prayers which the Labour group had scrapped.

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