A Maldon town councillor has said he should not have expressed his "deep-seated personal convictions" regarding weddings between LGBT+ people during a council meeting last month.

In a full town council meeting last week (Monday, 13 September), Councillor Shrimpton said: "I agree that I should not have expressed my deep-seated personal convictions on this subject in my capacity as a town councillor in a council meeting.

"This was not an appropriate forum and I shall not use my role as town councillor to make these or similar comments in the future."

The statement follows comments made by Councillor Shrimpton during a meeting of the town council's finance committee last month.

In the meeting, he said: "When you're talking about same-sex weddings, you're not talking about weddings."

Residents across Maldon expressed their disappointment at Councillor Shrimpton's comments following the meeting.

In an open letter, 26 local businesses said they were "absolutely shocked to see the blatant homophobic and outdated comments made by Councillor Shrimpton and others" at the meeting.

Businesses across the High Street hung Pride flags and posters in their shop windows to express solidarity with the LGBT+ community in response.

Councillor David Ogg, the town mayor, said that all councillors will be offered diversity and equality training following the backlash to Councillor Shrimpton's comments.