“THIS man is a serious nuisance”, “…his latest pile of crap”, “He can get stuffed as far as I am concerned.”

These are some of the comments made about a member of the public by Test Valley Borough Council (TVBC) officers in internal emails.

Self-admitted serial complainant Paul Flippance, who particularly focuses on issues of planning breaches, submitted a Subject Access Request (SAR) to the council, asking for information they hold on himself, and was “pretty shocked” at some of the content in the internal emails he received on Wednesday, 23 May.

The correspondence logged in the request dates from January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2017, and an estimated 100 hours was spent by officers compiling the documents, of which more than 15,000 pages were reviewed in relation to Mr Flippance.

Mr Flippance said: “Fair play I have obviously gotten under their skin.

“I have outed them in a lot of places and the complaints I have made are quite justified. I have been a nuisance, but you are in public office, you are here to serve.

“For people to be saying that in public office, if that was an MP they would be resigning before they were kicked out.

“’The only shame is that it doesn’t take in Paul Flippance’s house :)’ - What does that mean? Are they going to send someone to put a brick through my window?

“I make no apology for it [logging a number of complaints with the borough council]. At the end of the day it is checks and balances.”

Other comments made in emails between council staff include: ‘Will he ever get a life!’ ‘He is a bully’ and ‘lovely – what a pain he is’.

Mr Flippance has since contacted TVBC chief executive Roger Testall to complain about the comments and “anti-Paul Flippancism” which he says clearly pervades the organisation.

A council spokesperson said: “The council does not condone unprofessional comments being made about anyone, and apologises for any offence caused.

“However, as the council’s chief executive has made clear to Mr Flippance in correspondence about these comments, the assessment of complaints about such matters must be made against the background of the context in which they occurred.

“Unfortunately, the council is hamstrung in responding to Mr Flippance in public because it is not able to reveal details of that context, unless he consents to our doing so.”