DISGRACED councillor Hugh Prichard was stripped of his public responsibilities last night after his plea for colleagues to save him fell on deaf ears.

The veteran Fareham councillor was booted off the planning development control committee, the housing and policy strategy and finance panels and was replaced on a number of outside bodies by fellow councillors.

All his replacements were put forward by the Liberal Democrat party, which also ousted Pritchard as a member of the local group last week.

He was unanimously replaced despite a bizarre address to members urging them to defy their orders and abstain from the vote.

Councillor Pritchard, who remains a representative for Fareham South ward, likened his treatment since he was convicted of fraud to persecutions in history, including the actions of the Klu Klux Klan.

Although he opened his address with a full and frank apology to the council "without reservation", he went on to accuse those who called for the extraordinary meeting of bringing the council into disrepute.

He said: "The cost to the council tax payer, however small, is unjustified, as is the inconvenience of us all being here. We are letting yesterday use up too much of today.

"Even being here tonight brings this council into disrepute."

He reiterated a previous statement that he had paid his debt to society following his court appearance last month were he was convicted of defrauding the council out of £1,200 and fined £300.

He said: "The professed reason is to prevent me from having a vote at a couple of meetings, but will that actually benefit the residents, which is surely our reason for being members? What then is the hidden agenda? A transparent but pathetic blackmail attempt to assist electoral chances in 2004."

He urged his colleagues not to follow the party line, concluding with the passing shot: "I wonder how many of you will have the courage to abstain?"

No one did and he was replaced in every one of his former capacities, even down to being a governor for a Portchester school.

Council leader Sean Woodward said that a letter signed by all 30 councillors had been sent to the Standards Board of England, urging them to disqualify Cllr Pritchard from the council.