There was some controversy at the beginning of last night’s Isle of Wight council cabinet meeting.
As the meeting started, a member of the public – Robert Izzard – stood up and declared the meeting to be unlawful, stating that any decisions made there would be invalid.
Mr Izzard declared that it gave him no pleasure to bring this to attention, but he was compelled to point out that it was a statutory requirement that notice of the meeting must be given three clear working days before the event.
Notices in libraries or on the Internet were not sufficient, he claimed, continuing that they must be posted on the notice board outside the building. He said that he had noted that there was no notice posted there.
Concluding, Mr Izzard said that he had been forced to challenge this three times and the only option available was to adjourn the meeting.
Advice from Davina Fiore
Cllr Pugh took advice from the IW council head of legal, Davina Fiore.
“You are correct,” she opened, “but it’s actually five working days notice that must be given.
“The notice was made available to place on the board and I have asked for an update to check the board outside.”
She pointed out that the notice had been in the Libraries and on the Internet.
“My advice would be to not abandon,” she said, suggesting that if the meeting was found not to be lawful, “We could call another meeting to validate it afterwards.”
Mr Izzard stood up again saying that he understood the law well, “You cannot re-validate it afterwards. That would be acting invalid.”
Notice not outside building
Ms Fiore said that she had received an update that the notice was not outside building, “As there a number of people here. It would be unfair to cancel it.”
Cllr Pugh pointed out that this was only brought to their attention a few moments before the meeting started.
Re-iterating that he wasn’t trying to cause trouble, Mr Izzard concluded, “The view enshrined in law is that you cannot go ahead with this meeting.”
“We will press ahead”
Cllr Pugh said that he had taken advice from Ms Fiore “It’s your view that we cannot go ahead, but we will press ahead.”
The meeting then started in its normal way.
Obviously there was a lot of cut backs and other details discussed last night. Quite what will happen about this is currently unknown, but we’ll ask the council what their views are today.
