Wednesday night’s Sandown Town Council meeting was called to a halt almost as soon as it had begun.
As the third question during public question time was being asked, the Clerk, Tina Bailey, reportedly told the Mayor, Cllr Jacquie Mereweather, to stop the questioning as the item was not on the agenda. It was a question about the junior skate park fiasco.
Mayor and Clerk ‘stormed off’
Cllr Debbie Andre challenged the actions of the Clerk by reading out a Standing Order, clarifying that the question could be asked.
At this point the Cllr Mereweather, Cllr Raj Patel and Cllr Connie Cowley upped and left (described by those attending as ‘stormed off’) with the Clerk.
Cllr Gary Young (Chair of the Sandown Community Partnership) left when it was pointed out that there was still a quorum and the meeting could continue.
Police called
Cllr Heather Humby MBE, Cllr Andre and Cllr Alex Lightfoot remained in the hall with the public, who had not been asked to leave.
According to those attending, the Clerk then called the police to have the members of the public removed from the building.
Residents pretending to be cuffed
Keeping the council in the spotlight
A spokesperson for Sandown Hub Facebook Group told OnTheWight,
“The residents will continue to keep this Council in the spotlight. There were sixty plus public at this meeting which had been widely advertised by Sandown HUB and Rejuvenate Sandown on Facebook.
“Sandown HUB and Rejuvenate Sandown will work together now for the common goal to hold this Council accountable to the residents.”
Unaccountable?
OnTheWight have put a series of questions to the Clerk and Mayor about the incident.
They (and Cllr Gary Young) have failed to answer simple and legitimate media enquiries from nearly two weeks ago. Some might suggest they wish to remain unaccountable to their residents.
We’ll update this article once we hear back from them.
Update: Response from Mayor
Cllr Jacquie Mereweather, Mayor of Sandown Town Council, told OnTheWight,
“The meeting last night was a Town Council meeting to which the public are invited to attend and not a public meeting.
“Members of the public may ask questions at a meeting in respect of business on the agenda. Some questions did not relate to items on the agenda
“Under the powers given to me as Chairman of the meeting (TC Standing Orders 1(c) and 75) I asked many times for the public to be quiet so that the business of the Council could be conducted.
“As they were not quiet, I closed the meeting (not the clerk) and the clerk and other members of the Council left the meeting. The only other item on the agenda was deferred to another meeting to be arranged.
“The public were asked to leave the building so it could be locked and the alarm set . As they would not leave the police were called to disperse the public.”
Article edit
17.00 Response from the mayor added
Images: © Paul Coulesant and Jane Cresdee Midmore / Sandown Hub
