Hadleigh town council has apologised for the distress caused to one of its residents as review is being carried out into why legal letter was sent to her.

The majority of Hadleigh councillors have confirmed they were not aware of a solicitors letter being sent to a resident before the action was taken.

During a meeting on Monday to discuss the council's legal process in dealing with complaints, a vote was allowed by deputy mayor Gordon McLeod who was chair.

All bar one councillor (Brian Loftus) raise their hands to say they had not been aware that this action was being taken or consulted about the background before the Newmarket based solicitor was instructed to send the letter.

It was also agreed that a full review would be carried out into the matter and clerk Wendy Brame wrote to the resident to advise her of the situation and said: "The town council will conduct a review as soon as they are able to and would like to apologise for any distress caused whilst this is carried out. We hope you can bear with us during this time."

The letter also said confirmed no injunction was 'either imminent or implied'.

Nub News has always respected the resident's request for anonymity and has called her Mrs A to protect her identity.

Mrs A told Nub News: "I do feel a bit better after the meeting and the letter as this has been hugely stressful for me, especially over the Christmas period."

Mrs A praised chairman Cllr McLeod for his efforts in trying to collate all the evidence and allowing a vote to find out which councillors had indeed seen the letter written by Ms Tye and sanctioned by the former mayor.

She said: "The meeting chair was extremely pro-active in wanting to gather all the evidence and emails and an investigation is taking place as it should finding out why the legal letter was sent in the first place and if indeed there are grounds to send me an injunction.

"I still want an end to this as soon as possible and for me to be cleared of any wrongdoing when all i did was raise concerns about safety."

Town council manager Cheryl Tye drafted the cease and desist letter for solicitors to send to the resident who had aired concerns about the Christmas Tree project and the former mayor Frank Minns sanctioned it being sent.

However, councillors had previously been told they could not answer the residents' question, sent by email and asked in previous meetings, who else knew about Ms Tye's actions.

Resident threatened with gagging order.

Ms Tye has been signed off work due to stress since the beginning of the year