An aspiring Scottish Socialist Party MSP who helped safeguard the future of an under-threat care facility at the centre of a sit-in by two elderly residents has been suspended from attending meetings of his local authority.

The complaint against Jim Bollan, an SSP councillor on West Dunbartonshire Council and list candidate at the forthcoming Holyrood elections, was made by Tim Huntington, former chief executive of the beleaguered local authority. It was upheld at a hearing in Clydebank In February.

Mr Bollan was found to have insulted Theresa Westwood, unit manager of the Leven Cottage residential home, using "threatening, intimidating, discourteous, derogatory and disrespectful" language.

The community facility was under threat of demolition by the council, who wanted to turn it into luxury flats. Two defiant pensioners, Robert Toole, 76, and Annie Cardiff, 86, staged a four-month sit-in in protest, even spending Christmas there. The pair were accompanied on numerous occasions by Mr Bolan.

In a U-turn last year however, the local authority backed down and decided to sell the Alexandria facility to Cordale Housing Association, thereby safeguarding its future.

At the commission hearing, Mr Bollan did concede that he told Mrs Westwood she was in the "wrong profession" in March last year, and telling her to "f... off" and calling her a "liar."

Mrs Westwood, the commission heard, was left feeling "degraded, devastated and intimidated" following the incident.

Mr Bollan's six-month suspension from attending council and committee meetings came into force on February 26. The details of his suspension will be brought before a full meeting of West Dunbartonshire Council today.