A county council leader is to be charged with bringing the Labour Party into disrepute following alleged correspondence between himself and a newspaper columnist.

Coun Peter Clarke, the leader of Gloucestershire County Council, has been suspended from the party since September, and now faces possible expulsion.

Citizen columnist Martin Kirby claims to have received a number of letters from Coun Clarke regarding a car accident the columnist was involved in during 1995, in which a car driven by Martin was in collision with a four-year-old boy, who later died in hospital.

The writer was cleared of any blame for the accident at the subsequent inquest. But he says the incident left him extremely shocked and distressed, and put strain upon both his personal life and his career.

In February 2001, one of his columns appeared in The Citizen in which he criticised part of the council's 'Safer City' project, and particularly the road humps in part of the city as an experimental scheme designed to reduce road accidents.

Coun Clarke allegedly responded to the comments, dismissing them as 'bitter and twisted'. However, Martin claims the correspondence, which he says continued until June this year in the form of personal letters, descended to a level of personal abuse he and his family found particularly offensive.

A number of comments were allegedly made by Coun Clarke referring to the car accident, including one letter where he referred to 'your predilection for death and carnage on the road'.

The journalist also allegedly received another letter suggesting he change his motto to 'Bring death back to the road', and another which accused him of being 'another journalistic whinger who must know more about killing than some of us'.

A Labour Party spokesman confirmed the charge was to be presented to the National Constitutional Committee.

Martin Kirby said: "I am pleased that Labour South West feel my complaint justifies their taking such a step."

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