A loud stoush continues between the mayor and councillors of Fraser Coast Council.

Fraser Coast Mayor Chris Loft has written a scathing open letter in which he accuses several councillors of undermining and disrespecting his authority.

Cr Loft said councillors who “break ranks” to deal directly with senior staff “are attempting to control the executive and administrative arm without my authority”.

“This is tantamount to a coup.”

The Mayor said Deputy Mayor George Seymour was “acting more like an opposition leader”, teaming-up with Councillor Stuart Taylor.

Cr Loft also said fellow Councillor David Lewis had made comments to the media to “fan the flames and attract more attention from the State Government”, though he did not specify any particular comments.

The letter comes just a few months after Queensland’s Department of Local Government was forced to bring in an advisor to assist council.

The advisor’s report identified the “relationship between the Chief Executive Officer and the Mayor as the single biggest issue the Council continues to face”.

It described the council as having a “culture of control, favouritism, a lack of trust, a fear of reprisal, low morale and a toxic working environment”.

But the Mayor says it is becoming political.

“You start looking at the political parties these people belong to, it starts to marry it,” Cr Loft said.

“Now I'm not into conspiracy theories but let's be very clear here: there's some of these councillors that are very tied closely, they're members of — Cr Taylor, Cr Seymour — are members of the ALP.

“These ALP councillors I've got on board really need to stand up, put down down their local politics, their union politics.”

“I'm saying those ALP members of council — they're union people — need to start protecting the staff here on the council, stand up, start defending that culture with me, not the opposite and allowing it to fester.”