A leading Cornwall councillor has called for moves for a vote of no confidence to remove the local authority’s Tory leader Linda Taylor to be honoured to “avoid bringing the council into disrepute”.

On September 30, opposition councillors John Conway – who resigned from the ruling Conservative group earlier this year – and Julian German tabled a motion, which needed to be signed by a third of Cornwall Council’s councillors in order to go to the vote.

Members were later told by the council’s interim monitoring officer Matt Stokes that there would be a deadline for signatures by 5pm on Thursday, October 3. By that cut-off point, 27 of the 29 signatures needed for a vote of no confidence had been received and the motion was lost.

However, some members greeted news of a deadline with anger, suggesting there is nothing in the council’s constitution stating there should be a time limit for such motions. The two further signatures needed for the vote were received just after the deadline.

Tim Dwelly, Independent councillor for Penzance East, has now written to outgoing monitoring officer Henry Gordon-Lennox – who is leaving the council to take on a role within the judiciary – stating that the proposed motion to remove the leader “has become preposterous”.

In the letter, which was also sent to all other opposition councillors, Cllr Dwelly says: “There are 29 signatures only four days after the motion process started. No one knew any deadline applied on Monday. In fact we knew it didn’t because we can read the constitution.

“It’s nothing to do with wet signatures. It’s about an arbitrary imposition of a short deadline that isn’t even hinted at in the constitution. Making rules up on the hoof. How on earth does Cornwall Council think this will be perceived?

“A flexible approach would be ‘Fair enough we misjudged this. Now there are the required 29 signatures we will proceed to avoid bringing the council into disrepute’. Hopefully that will now happen to avoid further embarrassment?”

Cllr Conway has said that the move to oust Cllr Taylor will be made again, but this time with the 29 signatures presented upfront.

The leader said last week that she was pleased the motion had failed and claimed it was the result of a “personal vendetta” by Cllr Conway. She added: “We are here wanting to deliver for Cornwall and things like this are a distraction. It seems a bit of a reckless move reputationally by both Mr Conway and Mr German. I am pleased as there’s a sense here of let’s get on with business and not get restricted by alternative messages coming from Cllr Conway.”