A top manager at Oxford City Council, whose work has been criticised by councillors, has been suspended for a "disciplinary matter".

An investigation about leisure and parks business manager Tony Stephens has now been launched. The exact reasons for the city council's actions, last Friday, have not been released.

Mr Stephens, who lives in London and is believed to earn about £37,000, has been suspended on full pay.

Council spokesman Nick Spencer said: "We can confirm that one member of our staff has been suspended to allow an investigation into a disciplinary matter.

"Due to its sensitive nature, we cannot make any further comments until the end of the investigation."

Opposition members said they had recently questioned how Mr Stephens ran his department, which oversees services like parks, leisure centres and allotments.

His appointment in August 2003 followed the merger of the council's parks and leisure units, and caused controversy because he was chosen above former boss Andy Parsons, who was made redundant after 25 years' service.

John Goddard, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said: "I don't know anything about the latest circumstances leading to this suspension, but what I do know is that when the merger of leisure and parks was suggested, my group and some of the others said it was a thoroughly bad idea.

"The new department is just too big and the whole thing has been abominably managed. Throughout the centre of it all, the groups have complained bitterly about getting Tony Stephens to do anything constructive at all. It's been an appalling chapter of incidences."

Members of the city's finance scrutiny committee have repeatedly summoned Mr Stephens to speak to them about the leisure and parks' budget since last summer, but he has failed to attend their meetings.

Liberal Democrat councillor and chairman of the committee Stephen Tall said: "In July last year we expressed concerns about the lack of financial rigour on the development of the Ferry Centre. A report on it came very late to the executive board recommending the approval of a £3m contract.

"We had a two-page report, which wasn't very much for making a decision on that level of spending, and I called it in so we could look at it from a financial point of view. That flagged up concerns for us.

"Since then, there've been various concerns, like the leisure strategy, which has been promised for a couple of years to show us whether we're delivering affordable leisure services. If we don't have a strategy in place how can we agree a budget?

"Leisure is such a big part of the overall council budget that we decided enough was enough and we had to step in to find out exactly how this money was being spent."

Council leader Alex Hollingsworth said: "An investigation is ongoing and I expect it will reach its conclusions quite quickly.

"We cannot say any more at this stage."