The council has been accused of censorship after it told a councillor not to contact borough officers over a controversial visit to Cannes.

Beddington North councillor Nick Mattey had questioned why they had accepted a £30,000 offer from a PR company to visit a property expo in the glamorous French city.

He was issued with a letter from South London Legal Partnership on Thursday, March 30, informing him that he emails would not be received by council officers and instead go to the member’s enquiry mailbox, where a decision to forward them would be taken.

It added the process would be in place for three months and that restrictions would be lifted if he “stops making unfounded allegations about named officers and return to using council resources for reasonable council business only”.

The letter refers to comments made by Cllr Mattey at a council meeting last month.

A Sutton Council spokesman said: "Sutton Council balances its duty of care to council employees with enabling elected members to fulfil their role as set out in the council constitution. We sent a personal letter to an individual and it is therefore not appropriate for us to comment further."

The trip was funded by PR company 3Fox International, which lists Barratt London and Mizen as ‘MIPIM partners’. Both companies had also submitted planning permission for projects in the borough.

At the council meeting Mr Mattey said: “It is not common for people who have live planning applications to pay a company undisclosed amounts of money and that company then passes the money on so that members of the council can spend £30,000 getting to Cannes.

“Just because other people do things doesn’t make it right, this was the standard defence at the Nuremburg trial.”

After receiving the letter Cllr Mattey told the Sutton Guardian: “It’s censorship, they are unhappy that I brought up their visit to Cannes, but they have shot themselves in the foot with this one.

“I’m writing to the council to get it overturned. I’m here to do my job with the council and I need to contact them. I can’t let them silence me.”