A Conservative Isle of Wight councillor has resigned from the political party over a planning disagreement.

In the last week requests have been made for the voting history of the Isle of Wight's Council planning committee to be disclosed, after it was questioned whether some members were making a valid contribution.

County Hall Conservative leader Cllr Joe Robertson said Cllr Spink took exception to some of the comments made about motivations behind voting patterns, and scrutinising the records of members.

Cllr Robertson said he was asked to intervene by Cllr Spink but declined to do so, which led Cllr Spink to decide to leave the Conservative group.

The pair remain on good terms, said Cllr Robertson, and he wished Cllr Spink well.

Cllr Spink said today (Friday) he would still remain as part of the national Conservative party.

He has so far given no reason for his resignation but felt he could better represent the residents of his ward (Freshwater North and Yarmouth) as an ‘Independent Conservative’ member of the authority.

At last week’s planning committee meeting, Cllr Matt Price said he felt he had been put in a position many times where he had to direct the committee, keeping it on the straight and narrow.

Cllr Brodie joined the calls for the voting records to be shared saying it was easy to be populist but that is not what planning was about.

He suggested having the wrong people on the committee could put the council in a "very serious financial and reputational situation".

Cllr Spink said he did not think looking into the voting history was a good idea as it appeared to be a check to undermine the integrity of those who voted a certain way, to which Cllr Price argued that was not the point.

Cllr Spink's resignation from the Tory group now changes the make-up of the Isle of Wight Council.

Currently, no one party holds overall control of the authority but the Conservatives had held the same amount of seats as the ruling Alliance Administration.

Now, with one fewer seat, the Conservatives have 16 members, compared to the Alliance's 17.

Other seats on the authority are in the hands of the Liberal Democrats (two), Labour (one), Independent Labour (one) and one independent member.