BASINGSTOKE and Deane Borough Council is set to get a politically-nominated mayor for the first time in its history.

Tory councillor Keith Chapman will be officially installed on Thursday after 30 of the ruling Conservatives blocked deputy mayor Cllr Phil Heath – who should have been mayor on the council’s seniority principle – from becoming the borough’s first citizen.

After the vote, someone in the public gallery shouted: “You should be disgusted with yourselves.”

Cllr Heath, who has been on the council for 18 years, has faced opposition to his election to the mayoral post from a majority of the ruling Conservatives since he became the subject of formal investigations into alleged breaches of the councillors’ code of conduct.

Four allegations were made in January – two from Conservatives and two from council officers. The latter included one from borough chief executive Tony Curtis, who was unhappy with the former Tory group leader’s criticism of the authority’s response to last winter’s snowfall.

Last Thursday’s mayoral selection meeting began with public questions. Christine Heath, Cllr Heath’s wife and until the May 6 elections also a borough councillor, asked Conservative council leader Cllr Andrew Finney whether failing to elect the most senior councillor as mayor would be, “the most disgraceful act by his administration, destroying the mayoralty and replacing the mayor with a mere chairman and council puppet without any mandate from the public to do so?”

Cllr Finney said the vote had nothing to do with the Conservative administration, but was about individuals voting on their conscience and beliefs. He said there was no evidence of public concern at the ballot box.

Cllr Chapman was nominated for the mayoralty by Conservatives Cllr Marilyn Tucker and Cllr Stephen Reid, in contravention of a 1984 council decision that the mayor should be proposed and seconded by members of two different parties.

After the current mayor Cllr Brian Gurden ruled that this was allowed, Labour’s Cllr Paul Harvey and Independent Cllr Martin Biermann moved an amendment, proposing Cllr Heath. Cllr Heath, a co-founder of Basingstoke Community Party who was ejected from the Conservatives in 2008 over an alleged dispute with a party worker, made a brief speech saying he had discovered during the long-running saga that he could not hate, and that you could have friends in politics.

When the vote was taken, 30 councillors – all Conservatives – voted against Cllr Heath becoming mayor, three abstained – Cllr John Leek (Conserv-ative), Cllr Chapman (Conservative) and Cllr Gurden (Liberal Democrat) – and 25 voted for him – all Liberal Democrats, Labour and independents.

New Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Gavin James said the mayoralty should not be destroyed by party politics, and added that he respected Cllr Chapman.

He said: “It’s not his fault. He’s had to sit in the shambles created by his fellow party members.”

But Labour deputy group leader Cllr Paul Harvey said Cllr Chapman had every opportunity to stop the vote by stepping aside and did not, so he could not support him. He told Cllr Chapman: “You’re not the rightful mayor.”

And Labour group leader Cllr Laura James attacked the outgoing mayor and said the mayoral election saga, which began in December, had brought the council into disrepute.

She told Cllr Gurden: “I think if we had seen your support for the deputy mayor at that early stage, we wouldn’t be in this position today.”

Seven of the 16 Liberal Democrats and all the Conservatives supported Cllr Chapman, but he did not receive the support of the whole chamber.

As Cllr Chapman came to the mayor’s chair, Cllr Gurden left the chamber and did not return. Cllr Heath was then re-elected deputy mayor, although he asked to be addressed as deputy chairman – reflecting his belief that the borough does not now have a true mayor.