An Evesham councillor has resigned after claiming she was bullied.

Emma Nishigaki has resigned from Evesham Town Council saying she felt “bullied, harassed, marginalised and excluded”.

Ms Nishigaki has autism and believes this has been a cause of the bullying.

She announced her decision in an email to the mayor of Evesham, councillor Sue Amor.

She wrote: “It is with deep sadness that I have been forced to tender my resignation

“Over the last two years I have been constantly, bullied, harassed , marginalised and excluded from council matters. In November I left in tears from the council meeting.

“Concerns raised have been ignored, I have been belittled, and told to resign by five councillors, and my autism had been referenced in all of those requests.”

Ms Nishigaki added that she has been advised by a solicitor to proceed with legal action under the 2010 Discrimination Act as a result of how her disability was treated by the council

She goes on to say how her mental health has been affected by the situation and also noted several of what she feels were wrongdoings by the new town clerk.

“Recently the bullying peaked at such a level that I had a full breakdown involving a suicide attempt,” said Ms Nishigaki.

In the final line of her resignation email, Ms Nishigaki wrote: “With the exception of the contents of closed meetings I am under no duty of confidentiality.

“Under the Nolan principles we all have a duty of openness and transparency. This council, in my opinion, lacks both and as such, until changes are made at the core I wish to disassociate myself with the many awful and potentially unlawful decisions made by this council.”

Evesham Town Council declined to comment on the matter.

When asked about her response to the resignation email, councillor Smith said: “I don’t really have any comment other than to say there are two sides to every story and she has verbally abused me in public.”