TENSION overflowed at a roads partnership meeting when a Kidderminster councillor walked out after being accused of being too political.

The fractious scene came when Wyre Forest Highways Partnership Forum, an advisory group mainly composed of district councillors to influence county roads policy, threw open its doors to the press for the first time to help publicise its work.

The two county council cabinet members who attended urged their district colleagues to be "non- political and non-parochial" and to promote the good of the whole district rather then their individual wards.

But the meeting was interrupted when Wyre Forest District Councillor Vera Tomlinson stormed out after being ruled out of order "for being too political" by chairman Peter Carter - who later admitted the Wyre Forest forum is the most "acrimonious" in the county.

Liberal Democrat councillor Mr Carter was jointly proposing, with Conservative Mrs Tomlinson, a small highway scheme for Kidderminster's Shrawley Avenue.

"She was trying to hijack the meeting for political ends - it's not a political forum," he said.

"She was trying to claim responsibility for everything. She wanted to amend the agenda to say she had proposed the scheme, but it was going to come up anyway."

But Mrs Tomlinson, who later denied she walked out, countered that as ward councillor she had proposed the scheme after meeting highways partnership manager Stuart Reynolds and leafleting homes.

"I asked the chairman to amend the record. He refused. The chairman then lost his temper."

She added: "Peter Carter misused his position for political gain."

At the end of the meeting Alwyn Davies, county cabinet member for economic development and regeneration, noted that no decisions had been made.

But Mr Carter said after the meeting that it was difficult to make recommendations on five possible small highway schemes up for discussion because the 2002-03 budget had not yet been set.

"It could be £10,000 or £50,000. We could do one or we could do the lot."