A debate on a possible town council for High Wycombe descended into chaos on Monday after a former district council leader called for Wycombe Labour’s Cllr Khalil Ahmed to apologise for “misleading” people about the possible costs of a new town council.

Cllr Ahmed said a question raised by former Tory Wycombe District Council leader Roger Colomb at full council on Monday was “planted” to allow current leader Cllr Katrina Wood to “undermine the case for a town council”.

It comes after a debate on the possibilities of a town council descended into mayhem, with Cllr Katrina Wood agreeing with Mr Colomb that Cllr Ahmed was “disingenuous and misled” the council about the potential financial costs of a town council.

Mr Colomb said: “At the last council meeting Cllr Khalil Ahmed presented a petition requesting a Community Governance Review to ascertain whether a town council should be set up to cover the unparished area of Wycombe District.

“In his lengthy introduction he stated that he believed that a town council could be established and run at no extra expense to the taxpayer residents of High Wycombe and he severely criticised two senior councillors who had been distributing leaflets setting out the likely costs by identifying the precepts charged by the existing town councils in Bucks, which are of course very considerably in excess of the modest charges of the High Wycombe Town Committee’s Special Expenses.”

Mr Colomb also asked if Cllr Ahmed should apologise, and Cllr Wood added: “Well yes, I think probably he should.”

As Cllr Ahmed attempted to respond to the issues raised after claiming the comments were “potentially defamatory”, chairman Cllr Tony Green said: “It isn’t an opportunity for you to make a speech or to repeat what you said previously.”

As the debate boiled over, Cllr Ahmed accused Cllr Green of being “unreasonable and unfair and heavy-handed”.

In an open letter to the Bucks Free Press, Cllr Ahmed said: “Roger Colomb does not live in the unparished area of High Wycombe. He is a resident of Chepping Wycombe Parish where Cllr Wood is the chairman of the parish council. As he benefits from a parish council he should not be opposing the creation of one in another area.

“I recently met with Trevor Snaith and the WDC head of finance and commercial to review the figures. He confirmed that we don’t yet know the outcome of the Community Governance Review and suggesting any actual costs would pre-empt that exercise.”