At the beginning of the Extraordinary meeting of the Ventnor Town Council last night, ex- Ventnor town councillor Val Taylor stood at the beginning of public question time (not for the first time) and claimed that the meeting had been called unlawfully.
Immediately following this, Susan Scoccia, town and county councillor for Ventnor West, stood and started to read from a prepared speech, proffering her resignation as a town councillor.
Devastated
After a slight interruption, when members of the public were allowed to continue asking questions, Cllr Scoccia told the meeting that she was “angry and devastated” that the meeting had been incorrectly called.
She went on to make reference to changes that had been made to minutes of a previous meeting by Cllr Bonney, before going on to apologise to the public for her actions, stating that she thought what was she was doing was right.
She finished by saying that she could no longer work with the current Ventnor Town council. She confirmed she would continue as county councillor and apologised to all the people who had voted her in as a town councillor.
Cllr Bartlett also resigns
Directly after Ms Scoccia had left the table to sit at the back of the hall, Councillor Buster Bartlett, who is well into his 90s and gained his uncontested seat in the elections last year as councillor for St Lawrence, stated that he found himself in the same position as Ms Scoccia. He said he could no longer tolerate the position and was to step down after 30 years as a councillor.
And Cllr Perks goes too
Hot on the heels of Buster, Cllr Graham Perks stood and told the meeting that he too, was resigning.
The resignations were followed with a question by Ventnor resident Geri Ward who asked the remaining councillors “Are you happy now?”
This morning, pre-9am, we requested a copy of the prepared speech that Ms Scoccia read from to share with you, but at the point of publishing this article have not yet received a reply.
Image: Felipe Skroski under CC BY 2.0
