The Government’s enthusiasm for the e-enablement of local government suddenly seemed to be bearing fruit after a flurry of activity on a Yorkshire parish website - only for the council to pull the plug on the site.

The Copmanthorpe parish council website had attracted the attention of a prankster who littered the message board with web-links – to pages containing the sort of ‘mature lady’ material normally reserved for a Richard Desmond publication.

The discussion forum has now been closed down by the council. It was originally intended to offer residents a forum to discuss local services.

“We don’t wish to be associated with that kind of thing,” said council clerk Diane Greenwell to the BBC: “It would appear that whoever is doing this may be cleverer than us”

Otherwise, the most popular posts on the message board concerned dog-related problems in the town’s alleyways and parks. Stan Collymore had not been seen in the area.