A FORMER project manager with East Lothian Council has gone on hunger strike in protest after a failed legal challenge saw the local authority launch a bid to reclaim its costs.

Theresa Sives (pictured), ran the PETE project in Musselburgh for five years, helping drug addicts find work, but she claims that when she began asking questions about where funding was going, she was moved from her post and eventually sacked.

Theresa took the council to employment tribunal after she was dismissed for gross misconduct in 2013.

Last month, after 19 months of legal negotiations, the case was thrown out and within days the council had lodged a request for costs to be awarded to them.

Theresa, who lives on Whitehall Avenue, Musselburgh, has now gone on a starvation protest in an effort to stop them reclaiming the money.

She has been refusing food since Tuesday, March 24, and insists she will not eat until action is taken as she faces losing everything.

She said: “I would rather die than lose our house to the council.

“All I wanted was my day in court, but they did everything they could to stop that happening.” Theresa claims that she raised the alarm about funding for PETE within a year of the project being launched in 2005.

She alleged that grants which the project received from the Big Lottery and East Lothian Drugs and Alcohol Partnership did not appear directly in its accounts.

One email Theresa received from a senior council official after querying where the funds were said: “Do not worry, your funds are as safe as if they are in an Icelandic bank.” In 2009, Theresa was moved off the PETE project, which she helped establish into a new role helping people with autism, because she claims the council said it wanted to investigate her allegations.

When she continued to raise concerns about the funding, she found herself facing a disciplinary hearing and was eventually sacked.

Theresa said: “I was suddenly facing six charges which seemed to change each time I challenged them, and was sacked for alleged gross misconduct.” Theresa lodged a complaint with the employment tribunal, claiming the council had breached its rules by dismissing her for being a whistleblower and breaching equal pay laws.

But she said in the 19 months the tribunal stretched on, she did not have one public hearing of her case.

She said: “There were four case management reviews and the council repeatedly tried to get it dealt with by written statements.

“In the end, a judge ruled I had to provide a written statement and, when I refused, because I wanted my day in court, my case was struck out.

“Within days of that decision, the council had applied for costs and were granted a hearing.

“I am now expected to attend the tribunal later this month so it can rule on the amount the council should be paid. By then I will have been on my starvation protest for four weeks. I won’t be able to attend.” The council said it investigated Theresa’s claims about finances thoroughly and found nothing to support them.

A spokesperson said: “East Lothian Council thoroughly investigated Ms Sives’ allegations as part of a disciplinary process but could find no evidence for her claims.

“Following an appeal hearing, Ms Sives then took her claims to an employment tribunal, who dismissed her case and awarded costs to the council.

“The legal action over a period of years has amounted to significant public costs which East Lothian Council is now seeking to recover, as it would in any other action.” Theresa has petitioned politicians and councillors to “review the case management decisions of the employment tribunal and dismiss the application for costs against me”.

Her petition and updates on her protest can be found at www.change.org/p/ed-miliband-mp-review-the-case-management-decisions-of-the-employment-tribunal-and-dismiss-the-application-for-costs-against-me