You may remember the short blip we put out last week when the Ventnor Town Council (VTC) meeting was brought to a halt.
We had hoped to publish a full report of the meeting the next day, other things got in the way, but here it is now.
As a town meeting has been called on the basis of what happened at this meeting and having seen and heard of a number of inaccuracies in reports doing the rounds, we thought it was best to clarify.
Cllr Scoccia chairs in Mayor’s absence
As the current Mayor, Cllr Welsford, was unable to make the meeting, Cllr Scoccia was elected to take the role of chair of the meeting.
Apologies for absence had also been received from Cllrs Lucas, Robinson and Mew.
Declarations of interest were taken and prior to the meeting opening to public questions, Cllr Bonney requested that he put forward a motion.
He stated that it would be relevant to the remainder of the meeting and requested that it be discussed before public question time.
The town clerk requested to see the proposal and after reading it, said that she wished it to be known that, “On record, I’m very unhappy about this.”
Cllr Bonney queries standing orders
Cllr Bonney, who was recently elected as town councillor for St Lawrence, started his address by stating, “I’m the new boy”, and asked the clerk to clarify some points relating to the Standing Orders.
Cllr Bonney asked the town clerk to confirm the relevance of text in bold in the Standing Orders. She replied that these were items that could not be altered.
Cllr Bonney then drew attention to Standing Order 37.1, but was interrupted by the town clerk who, in a rather rude tone, said, “Would you get to the point!”
Cllr Bonney continued reading from the Standing Orders, offering copies to his fellow council members, pointing out that item 1.1 stated meetings were set on dates as the ‘council may direct’. He confirmed, for those unable to see the paperwork, that this item was in bold, therefore ‘sacrosanct‘.
The date of the meeting had been changed by the Town Clerk, not the elected councillors.
Meeting date changed without councillors’ knowledge
The date for this meeting had been set for 15th March, as was advertised on the VTC Website. Regular VB readers will remember that VB only received notification of the change from 15th to 8th March a couple of days beforehand, not officially by the clerk, but from another councillor.
We queried this as we hadn’t received anything. She assured us that she had sent them of all of the media.
We understand from speaking to the correspondent for The South Wight Beacon, that she, as well as the South Wight Chronicle and County Press were only made aware of the date change a few hours before this meeting took place.
None of them received the details the week before as we had been assured by the Town Clerk.
Cllr Bonney said that the first he’d heard of the meeting date change was when he received an agenda a few days prior to the meeting.
This is not the first time meetings of the VTC have been halted on a technicality.
Readers may remember back in September 2009 when ex-Ventnor councillor, Val Taylor, demanded, in front of a hall full of people (about 150), a Winter Gardens Committee meeting be halted due to the meeting notice not been made public three clear days before the meeting.
Meeting date changed by the town clerk
He went on to say that he believed the meeting had been falsely called by the town clerk, making it invalid.
Cllr Scoccia questioned whether Cllr Bonney was saying that the meeting couldn’t be held. He replied that it was an invalid meeting, that the clerk had no authority to change the date of the meeting and that it had not been properly advertised.
The clerk addressed Cllr Scoccia, saying “Chairman, this is all wrong.”
Councillors not reasonably informed and Website not updated
Despite many interruptions, Cllr Bonney continued to try to deliver his motion suggesting closure of the meeting.
He reiterated that the VTC Website had stated the meeting would take place on 15th March, to which the town clerk claimed that it was not possible to make changes to the Website.
This was refuted by Cllr Bonney who had evidence that changes could, and were, being made to the Website. He showed a printout of the page showing who the councillors were, which had been updated just two weeks earlier with his details. In addition, minutes of previous meetings had been added to the Website thereby proving that it was possible to make changes to it.
He went on to reiterate that he had only found out about the meeting date change by a roundabout route and pointed out that three other councillors were also not present.
Cllr Bartlett shouted out, “that’s because he’s sick!” (referring to Cllr Mew), to which it was pointed out that three other councillors were also absent, he replied, “I’m not bothered about them!”
The clerk then stated, “I suggest we close the meeting.”
Sandbagging
Cllr Bonney continued, saying councillors had been denied the right to put forward resolutions, as it was too late to do so.
He went on to state the Standing Order item 37.1 was in place to avoid sandbagging, ie. taking advantage of councillors being away to ensure that items are being pushed through a vote.
He referred to Local Government Act Schedule 12, paragraph 8 which stated that there must be three clear days notice to the public before a meeting can be held. As this wasn’t the case, the meeting could therefore not be legally held.
“I think you’ve spoken enough”
To this, the clerk told Cllr Bonney, “You need to get control of what you’re doing!”
When Cllr Bonney continued to justify his actions, Cllr Scoccia said, “I think you’ve spoken enough.”
Cllr George added that he thought this was a serious issue and asked the chair to extend courtesy to Cllr Bonney and allow him to finish.
Bonney did not call the clerk a despot
Despite reports elsewhere, Cllr Bonney continued to set out his points politely while battling against interruptions, he stated that there is good reason why a town clerk can’t make decisions on behalf of the VTC and that if a clerk ignores that, it cuts to the heart of democracy.
He went on to say that if a clerk acts on behalf of the VTC, they “could be viewed as a town despot.”
He went on to say that he proposed a motion that the meeting be abandoned and given the clear law behind it, “It’s a formality.”
He stated that if any councillors voted against the motion it would be a breach of the law of the land. He continued that he had sought legal advice and looked into the matter carefully before considering proposing the motion.
Cllr Perks said that before voting, he wanted to seek advice from the town clerk, as he, “just had his (Cllr Bonney) word on it.” Cllr Bonney reiterated that it was not his word but that of the law.
The town clerk replied by saying that she was, “not going comment on anything.”
Motion seconded
Cllr Stubbings seconded the motion proposed and went on to say that the clause was clear and that he was “concerned that this has happened before.”
The town clerk asked to make an observation, she stated that the Mayor had agreed to change in meeting date, that she would be on holiday the following week and that there was so much business to discuss.
She said that there were two items on the agenda that night that were important to the future of the VTC.
Clerk claims council had hit rock bottom
Continuing, the town clerk, Tina Bailey, told the meeting that she had spoken at length to the monitoring officer at the Isle of Wight council (IWC), telling him that the council needs help. She said the VTC had hit rock bottom and if agenda items were not dealt with at that meeting, that the council would not be able to continue.
Over the noise of raised voices from some of the audience, Cllr George asked the chair who was responsible for changing the date of the meeting, to which the response was that it was on the minutes of the previous meeting.
As Cllr Bonney spoke, Cllr Bartlett started shouting over him, a member of the audience shouted “stop sandbagging” and the town clerk advised the chair to abandon the meeting.
Cllr Bartlett then shouted out “It’s crap. It’s crap!”
As Cllr Bonney tried to speak again he was told by the clerk in a a low growl, “Be very careful Mr Bonney.”
He continued “There’s a democratic matter at stake here.”
Calls from the audience asked for the meeting to continue, with ex-councillor Maureen Cawley saying the public were subject to an appalling display by councillors.
At this point with raised voices from councillors and members of the public, the chair finally called the meeting to an end.
Cllr Bartlett stood up and left the meeting apologising to the members of the public, of which there were about 15. It’s unclear whether he was apologising for swearing or the meeting having to be cancelled.
