Tewkesbury's 'Town Cat' banned from council offices

'There are issues of health and safety, insurance, security'

Missy the Cat was formerly 'Morale Officer' at Tewkesbury Town Hall (Ken Goodwin/Twitter)

Tewkesbury's "morale officer and town cat" has been barred from the Town Hall, after complaints from councillors.

Missy, who lives with her owner next door, has been paying regular visits to the building since last summer.

But the creature, who is listed on the Gloucestershire town's website as its 'morale officer’, has been banned from the building.

A special panel was set up to consider Missy’s future after former Mayor Karen Brennan raised concerns that Missy could be a danger to those with asthma and allergies.

She told the Radio 4 Today Programme a councillor who uses an inhaler had lodged an official complaint about the cat.

“An office is somewhere for business to be transacted and we don't need a cat around - there are issues of health and safety, insurance, security,” she said.

She was also concerned the cat might get into fights with dogs who occasionally visited.

The town’s new mayor, Peggy Clatworthy, agreed with her predecessor that the cat should be barred from the offices.

“It’s not ours and we don’t know what injections it has had”, she told Gloucestershire Live.

However, another member staff told the local paper of her disappointment at the panel’s decision.

“It’s just silly. They said previous people owned their dogs and we don’t own Missy,” she said.