Town council chaos as pair storm out
A row escalated during an extraordinary full council meeting to determine which councillors would serve on which three committees for the coming term.
Cllr Phil Pritchard erupted when he was told he couldn’t serve on the Staffing Committee and said the process in place had not been agreed.
But he was repeatedly reminded by Mayor, Cllr Alison Davies, that the process and committee structures were agreed at the last full council meeting.
Cllr Davies pointed out that out of the 15 elected councillors, 12 had made their three committee preferences known and that Cllr Pritchard, along with Cllr Hazel Evans and Cllr Estelle Bleivas, had not.
“Sorry, we weren’t asked for three,” he claimed. “And it says here I didn’t reply. I replied to the Town Clerk saying can I please have the form to fill in because we always had it in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 order and I never had a reply.”
But Cllr Pritchard was cut short by Cllr Davies, who said: “Excuse me. Because we had already agreed at the previous meeting and as we know times change, and what you had before is not what you have now. We were asked to do it, 12 people did it and three people didn’t manage to do it. That’s fine.”
Cllr Evans said: “I would have liked to have been on more than three (committees).”
But Cllr Davies again reiterated: “What was agreed was that everybody would say up to three committees they wish to be on and we would look at those and see if it was possible to make it work within the rules. Which are the rules set out in local government.”
But it lit a flame under Cllr Pritchard who became increasingly agitated as the debate continued.
“I am sorry, I disagree,” he said, before the Mayor again countered: “That’s fine you can disagree but what committees do you want to be on?”
After asking to be on Staffing – he was told by the Mayor: “that is not an option” which started an angry tirade.
“Please don’t jump down me when I open my mouth all of the time. Let me have a say please,” he shouted, but Cllr Davies again interjected: “Right, thank-you, you have had your say. You’re wasting your three minutes by going on.”
But it enraged Cllr Pritchard further who went on: “Now it’s amazing, chair, I am the only person in this room that you talk like that to.”
Cllr Davies repeated: “What committees do you wish to be on?”
“I want to be on Property and Services, Finance and Staffing,” said Cllr Pritchard.
“Obviously, you can’t be on Staffing, so do you want to choose a third or not?” was the reply.
Cllr Pritchard then said he wanted to make a proposal to change the process, but Cllr Davies had had enough.
“This (process) has already been decided at full council,” she said, before a now enraged Cllr Pritchard shouted: “No it hasn’t! I cannot be rebuked every time I speak.”
Other councillors could be heard trying to calm the situation, but Cllr Pritchard was already on his way out of the door.
As Cllr Davies wrapped up the discussion and prior to the final item being discussed, a visibly upset Cllr Evans was gathering her belongings and said: “I won’t be spoken to as a child. I am fed up of it. I am an adult.”
Cllr Davies replied: “I think just asking you what committees you want to be on was not speaking to you as a child?”
But Cllr Evans followed Cllr Pritchard out of the door in protest.
The final item of the meeting saw those remaining vote to support that a maximum of 12 members, plus the Mayor, can make up the committees, apart from Staffing. There was no mention in the meeting as to why the Staffing Committee was being treated differently.
Town Clerk, Anne Wilson, will now collate all the names and format the committees to start meeting in November.
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