Skipton’s sacked town crier has been banished by his fellow criers.

Kevin Griffiths has already had his licence to act as the town’s official crier revoked by Skipton Town Council.

Now, he has had his membership terminated by the Ancient and Honourable Guild of Town Criers.

The national guild, “promoter of prestigious public pronouncements”, said it had acted because Mr Griffiths had “fallen short” of its high standards.

“Members declared that Mr Griffiths had fallen short of the high standards required by the guild and being aware that his sponsoring authority had removed him from office, they agreed unanimously to revoke his membership,” said chairman Robert Needham.

In September, Mr Griffiths, 58, was sacked by the town council because he promoted some businesses to visitors as they arrived in Skipton’s High Street car park.

His activities were seen as a breach of bylaws preventing the carrying out of a commercial operation on the Craven District Council- owned car park.

The town council, which had received several complaints, said it had been left with no choice after Mr Griffiths had repeatedly failed to respond to requests to change his behaviour.

At the time, Mr Griffiths admitted promoting several businesses in the town, but said he did not favour one over the other and any business was welcome to use his services, in the same way as an advert was taken out in a newspaper.

His sacking was followed up by several national newspapers, some of which suggested he had been drunk while still in uniform and that he had verbally abused town councillors.

Mr Needham said the decision to remove Mr Griffiths from membership of the guild had been made last month at a meeting in Wootton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire.

Mr Griffiths was one of two members this year to have action taken against them by the guild, which for several years had not investigated the behaviour of any of its members.

“The board took into account the content of a press release from Skipton Town Council together with national and local press cuttings,” said Mr Needham.

“Members found that Skipton Town Council had revoked consent for Mr Griffiths to act as town crier, the reason (being) that the council had been in receipt of numerous complaints over a lengthy period of time relating to his activities.”

Mr Griffiths said he was unhappy with the decisions of both the town council and the guild and had sought legal advice.