Court proceedings have been started against a chamber of trade which owes a former town centre manager more than £3,000.

David Adams, former area trade co-ordinator for Cleckheaton, has begun court action against the Spenborough Chamber of Trade and Commerce after it paid only £1,300 of a £4,362 settlement for unfair dismissal awarded by a Leeds employment tribunal.

The chamber, which sacked Mr Adams three months before the end of his contract, claims it did not have the funds to repay the sum within 28 days of it being awarded in November.

But Mr Adams says the chamber has money in several accounts, including a fund once used to pay his wages.

He said: "I'm disgusted with the way I've been treated. Past officers and present members of the chamber must be dismayed at the situation the chamber has got itself in."

He has instructed Leeds County Court to intervene on his behalf to recover the outstanding amount.

The chamber has four weeks to find the money or face the bailiffs.

Chamber treasurer Alan Fothergill said: "We have every intention of paying David Adams but we can't until the funds are available. We are a non-profit organisation and as such we do not have overdraft facilities."

Mr Adams, who has since got a job as a regeneration co-ordinator in Sheffield, was appointed in August 1998 to head the Heartbeat campaign for the Spenborough Chamber of Trade and Commerce.

His brief was to attract new business and boost trade in the Cleckheaton area.

But chamber bosses were unhappy with his progress and ended his employment after eight months in May last year.

Chamber president Keith Joplin took over as area trade co-ordinator. He was re-appointed to the post, which is funded by the chamber, Kirklees Council and Calderdale and Kirklees TEC, for a second year in August.

The Leeds tribunal found the chamber had been in breach of contract and had wrongfully dismissed Mr Adams, who lives in Drighlington.

Mr Adams' solicitor, Paul Campbell, said: "Legally, he's entitled to the money but he has a practical problem of how to get it."

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