Within weeks of starting a new job back in her native Yorkshire, the former town clerk of Marlborough, Pam Dobson, has found herself at the centre of a new row.

Three councillors have threatened to resign over the lack of information they were given when she was appointed town clerk of the west coast resort town of Whitby.

One of them, Coun Amanda Smith, has been reported by another councillor to the Local Government Standards Board for her actions in threatening to resign from the council together with her husband, Coun Steve Smith, and colleague Coun Ian Havelock.

Coun Mrs Smith told the Gazette: “It is basically all over the procedure of Mrs Dobson’s appointment,” adding that some councillors believed they had not been told fully the reasons she left Marlborough.

“The very same thing that happened at Marlborough is now happening here,” she said.

The dust has still not settled at Marlborough after Mrs Dobson – no relation to the two town councillors with the same surname – left at the end of July after taking extended sick leave.

It was shortly after she reported sick with stress at the beginning of February that it was revealed that Mrs Dobson had habitually been in arrears with the rent on the council-owned cottage in the Recreation Ground in Salisbury Road that went with the £36,000 a year town clerk job. At one point she owed more than £6,000.

She tried to explain that the arrears situation had arisen following the sudden death of her husband, Tony, last summer but an investigation by councillors found that the arrears started within months of her appointment four years ago.

Marlborough Town Council is locked in a grievance procedure battle with Mrs Dobson but it has released no details, although it is understood it relates to the public disclosure of her arrears.

Before moving to Marlborough, Mrs Dobson had been town clerk at Filey – also in the Borough of Scarborough like Whitby – where one councillor, Mike Cockerill, had quit after a row about her salary being increased.

Shortly after that Mrs Dobson resigned from the job she had held for 15 years in Filey and became Marlborough town clerk.

Interviews take place next week of the six shortlisted candidates for the Marlborough job whose pay scale ranges from £35,900 to £39,000 depending on experience. The pay scale relates to the population of the town and the number of staff the council employs.