A former Walsall Council highways manager who suffers from depression and stress told an employment tribunal he was ‘totally ignored’ by the council at the tribunal’s first hearing.

Carl Teesdale, aged 52, of Birmingham Road, Walsall, is alleging that the council’s attitude to his disability caused him to leave his job, prompting his claim for constructive unfair dismissal, disability discrimination and unpaid holiday.

Mr Teesdale had been employed by the council for 16 years but became ill with depression and stress after he received a confidential council document leaked to him through the post, he told the Birmingham tribunal.

The contents of the four-page document which triggered Mr Teesdale’s medical problems are still confidential, Mr Teesdale is banned from talking to anyone about it and the part of the hearing relating to it was held in private yesterday.

But Mr Teesdale later told the public session of the hearing: “At times I wish I had never received the document, it was eating away at me.”

He said after he had seen it, all he wished for was an apology regarding its contents, and wanted to have a meeting with the council’s legal department. The case continues.