A VICE president and major shareholder at Macclesfield Town has claimed he is being driven out of the club.

Jeremy Turner and fellow ex-director and vice president Martin Lenton allege Silkmen chairman Rob Bickerton has banned them from attending a vice president's meeting at Moss Rose next Tuesday.

'He (Rob Bickerton) has lost the plot,' claimed former vice-chairman Turner.

'We have the smallest support in the Football League and now the club want to fall out with more people. I've had no explanation and nobody has written to me or picked up the phone. I'm utterly disappointed in the way the club is now being run.'

Turner, 46, admitted he had 'heckled' the Macclesfield chairman after the play-off home leg against Lincoln City. There was also an incident at this year's annual general meeting - leading to Turner later apologising to Bickerton.

The managing director of a textile import company alleged he only discovered he was banned after a chance meeting with two fellow vice presidents.

'They asked if I was going to the meeting and I said I would if it was still on because I hadn't heard anything,' claimed Turner, who owns '18,000-worth of shares.

'They said they had received letters, so I phoned the club and was told I had not been invited and was not welcome.'

Turner, along with his father and son, and Lenton and his wife, is now unsure whether the alleged ban extends to the rest of the club or just next Tuesday's meeting.

The latest development comes in wake of director Mike Rance's resignation last month. Rance, a significant contributor to Silkmen finances over the years, was unhappy with the direction the club was taking and stepped down.

And Lenton believes Macclesfield are moving away from their community-based roots, citing the club's decision to close part of the centre of excellence, IT centre and discontinuing its close links with women's football.

'Bickerton is spoiling what was a warm and friendly club,' claimed Lenton. 'Jeremy Turner, Mike Rance and Eddie Furlong saved this club and they have all been treated diabolically.

'The club was built on warmth and friendship but now Bickerton is taking over and acting too strongly - it's damaging the club.'

Mr Bickerton was contacted but declined to comment

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