A town councillor in Eye resigned because he felt frustrated at being held up in a project to deliver heating for the benefit of hirers of the town hall.

Adrian Beatty, speaking at this month’s Eye Town Council meeting, said he had been tasked with the project in May, and by July, had a proposed scheme in place, with external financial support, waiting to be approved.

On July 30 he met with the town council’s Buildings Committee, which Mr Beatty said told him they were surprised by how quickly he developed the plans but could not approve the plans within the timescale he proposed.

Mr Beatty told Eye Town Council that the delay was inconsistent with what he had told hall hirers. “I did not wish to be party to a decision to delay progressing the project beyond the previously agreed timetable and it for this reason that I tabled my resignation,” he said.

But Merlin Carr, a Buildings Committee member, told the Diss Express: “He had done all this work, but no one really knew what was going on. We wanted to help so it was not so much of a ‘one-man show’.

Mr Carr also said that it was difficult to agree to proceed his project during the August recess, and that further work and scrutiny was needed before public money could be committed. “We all regret his decision, because he had put a great deal of effort into it,” said Mr Carr.

At the meeting, Eye Town Council resolved in principle to proceed with a new heating system plan, provided grant funding can be obtained, to be ratified at October’s meeting.