by Alan Watkins

Council bosses are investigating a string of sleaze and bad behaviour allegations against four top Tory councillors.

KentOnline can reveal the four are facing separate accusations of bullying, kerb-crawling and disreputable behaviour in Medway.

A parish councillor in Allhallows has also been accused of illegally witholding information from the public and being rude to one of them at a meeting held in a primary school.

The four councillors facing allegations are Cllr Nick Brice, Cllr Jane Chitty, Cllr Ray Maisey and prospective parliamentary candidate Cllr Mark Reckless.

The parish councillor being probed is Yvonne Forrest.

Medway’s former audit committee chairman, Cllr Nick Brice, is waiting to find out what sanctions - if any - he faces from the council after accepting a kerb-crawling caution from the police.

He has already been stripped of Conservative membership and now sits as an independent.

Cllr Jane Chitty, the strategic planning portfolio holder, is alleged to have bullied an employee near the public reception area at the council's Gun Wharf headquarters.

She is also accused of failing to treat the officer with respect.

Cllr Ray Maisey has been accused of disreputable behaviour after it was alleged he concealed personal interests in a planning application at Cuxton parish council and later Medway council.

Cllr Mark Reckless faces three allegations brought by three Medway council officers, including the council's chief executive.

It follows a series of incidents at the end of last year at a planning appeal into the Castle Club in Rochester and over the schools reorganisation programme.

But Cllr Reckless - a solicitor in his day job - has hit back, claiming that the accusations are wrong.

If any of the cases are proved the standards committee has a range of powers. It can suspend a councillor for up to six months.

Another Conservative parliamentary candidate, Cllr Rehman Chishti, who is fighting the Gillingham and Rainham seat, has been cleared of allegations he used the council newspaper, Medway Matters, to promote himself.

The complaint was brought by a member of the public.

Following an investigation by Ms Upton, the standards committee decided officers made the editorial decision to focus on his private life, not Cllr Chishti.

The committee - made up of independent members with some councillors - dismissed the case.