A DISABLED man has been ordered to stop harassing council staff after he bombarded the town hall with more than 10,000 phone calls in four months.

In one day alone, wheelchair-bound Robert Bullough, 59, made 681 calls to Blackburn with Darwen Council - and the next day followed up with 585 more.

And in one five-week period, the authority logged more than 5,000 calls to various departments as part of Bullough's "strange and excessive" behaviour, which prompted a number of staff to consider quitting their jobs.

Bullough, of Warmden Gardens, Blackburn, has now been given a two-year Anti-Social Behaviour Order banning him from council buildings, threatening staff, or ringing officials, except in an emergency.

Speaking after the case, at Blackburn Magistrates' Court, Bullough vowed to stop the calls, but said he could still write to the town hall if he wanted to.

He said he had been calling the council because of a number of complaints about the care he had received.

He accepted the thousands of calls made had been "a nuisance", but said they had not cost him because he was entitled to free local calls through his Sky broadband package.

Jeff Cole, head of customer operations, told the court that the calls were made to a call centre, the council's one-stop shop and customer services.

He also became aware that calls were being made to social services, parking services, and the freedom of information and data protection team.

"It seemed quite peculiar and initially quite amus-ing," said Mr Cole.

"As time progressed there was a change in attitude and the effect the calls were having.

"The volume of calls began to increase and the inquiries became more sporadic.

"I spoke to several members of staff on the front line and it became apparent their workload was being increased by Mr Bullough."

Mr Cole said meetings were held in January and it became clear people were talking about leaving their jobs because of Mr Bull-ough.

"At least one member of staff broke down in tears because of him," said Mr Cole.

"The staff felt intimidated by him and some began to feel threatened."

Letters were sent to Bullough and staff were authorised to terminate any calls from him.

At one stage his home and mobile phone numbers were barred by the council system, but he began withholding his number, the court was told.

Linda Henderson, community care manager for social services, said Mr Bullough first came to her attention in August 2006 when he made a complaint about the level of service he was receiving and the billing for it.

There was a dispute which went to independent arbitration and the billing was found to be incorrect.

An amount of money was written off and Bullough received an apology for the error.

After the case, Mr Bullough added: "I won't speak to them ever again if I can help it.

"It probably was too many calls, but the council should be there if you need to speak to them.

"I have a number of parking tickets outstanding -if I can't contact the town hall they won't get paid.

"But this ASBO doesn't stop me writing letters - I can write as many as I like."