Handforth Parish Council meeting - hilarious zoom video

[cybershot]

You say that like it's a bad thing

Perhaps I should have added a smiley, oh well, I'll let people take it in whatever context they like! More fun that way.

 

[ska invita]

David Allen Green actually wrote a legal analysis of the question of Jackie Weaver's authority.

Did Jackie Weaver have the authority? – the law and policy of that Handforth Parish Council meeting

5th February 2021 Handforth Parish Council is not a happy parish council. This is an extract from a formal Letter from the Director of Governance and Compliance at Cheshire District Council (text p…

davidallengreen.com

i dont really agree with his conclusions and in the many comments below it this seems most correct:

“And the excluded chair and the disruptive councillors can hardly complain about their exclusions on the basis of non-compliance with the Standing Orders if, as they maintained, the committee meeting was illegitimate to begin with.

For on their own version of events, there was no valid committee meeting even taking place.”

All a bit of fun, but I’m not sure I follow this line of reasoning. Quite clearly the Chairman is mistaken in his belief that the meeting was illegitimacy called, but since the meeting has been legitimately called, surely they can still object to their exclusion.

If I mistakenly believe – and even mistakenly ascertain – that a court case which names me has been wrongly convened, do I then lose all right to be included in the proceedings because “on my own version of events, there was no valid proceedings even taking place”?

Further, Walker excludes people which the video does not show to have made any point regarding whether the proceedings were or weren’t properly convened.

I’m also not convinced by this:

“given that this exclusion was then accepted by the new chair, and that the disruption was plain, that does not seem to practically matter.”

Why does the judgment of the new chair matter? He wasn’t acting as chair at the time, I think we need more on why this is important.

The disruption being clearly plain isn’t the grounds for exclusion laid out under the standing orders. They quite clearly state that the chair needs to state there has been disruption, and then another member needs to press for exclusion. That didn’t happen.

As I say, all a bit of fun, but a lesson to future historians that the spoils go to the victor. On the coldest interpretation, Walker seems most in violation (perhaps exclusively, but we could debate the disruption) of the standing orders, but the Chair and Vice-Chair seem the much more objectionable attendees.

anyway, also deep in the comments is a thorough dig into previous and subsequent meetings, including minutes and unseen zoom footage only accessible by password...and the password
==============


ETA: ALso this - agree:


Dansays:
5th February 2021 at 14:54
You missed that it was not a parish council meeting. It was an emergency subcommittee meeting, that was called in the face of the opposition of the Chairman of the Parish Council, who refused to allow the meeting and did so in an unpleasant way, and hence was excluded, possibly even though nobody there had the authority to exclude him.
Perhaps the correct way to do things would have been for there to have been a full PC meeting, at which the chairman could have been deposed, thus allowing the subcommittee to carry on.
But maybe calling in Jackie Weaver for summary justice was easier and quicker.

⛏

 

[ska invita]

One last one as I think this does illuminate it all a bit
This is a really through write up of whats happened I think:

Sigmundsays:
5th February 2021 at 14:13
I too have taken this far too seriously!
It’s good to get the whole picture, and a very good summary is here:
Thread by @BDDunbar on Thread Reader App

There are three pertinent videos: the meeting of 10 Dec to which you refer, and those of 12 & 21 January. Ms Weaver returns in the latter. I think all three are on YouTube now, but if not, the minutes for all are on the PC website and those for 21 Jan include the details for viewing that meeting on zoom.

However, the best starting point for clarity of what lies behind it all is probably the minutes of 27th August. Here we learn that a Councillor who has not attended a meeting since December was automatically retired from post by the salaried Clerk, employed by the PC from their overall budget of nearly £250k, after taking advice from the relevant local authority, which relied on a barrister’s opinion and cited relevant case law, the contention being that the Chair had not called any meetings since March due to COVID-19.

The clerk was advised that the lack of meetings did not obviate the automatic retirement, and an announcement of a vacancy. An individual councillor sought separate barrister opinion, which contradicted this, and said that the period of non-attendance would cease accruing from the point at which scheduled meetings were suspended.

The PC’s employment committee met and – in brief – suspended the clerk pending an investigation, but a member also sent an email – accidentally cc’d to all PC members and the clerk, asking for instructions on “how to get rid of” the clerk. (classic)

There are two clear factions, three councillors in each, with the fourth – automatically retired – providing a majority group of which the chair, vice-chair and the other cllr excluded in the video (also current non-exec mayor of Cheshire East) thenceforth using process to block the routine functioning of the council in the interests of parishioners.

At the core of this, therefore, is the conflicting barristers’ advice: there are nuances about whence this was derived that can be found in the minutes, and in an outburst from the vice chair in the video of 12 Jan.

In this sense, JW is arguably preventing, rather than staging, a coup; the standing orders are weak in not articulating the primacy of the code of conduct, such that any significant breach manifested by bullying and aggression by any person should lead to emergency preventative action by any other person, perhaps?

Anyway, by 21st Jan we see JW back clerking; the chair excludes himself from the meeting, and after the public meeting which tidies up the obstructed procedures then meets off camera and reinstated the salaried clerk. I found earlier also minutes of a planning & environment committee this week, attended and chaired by the chair, with the three councillors not of his group all present, and the salaried clerk back in post, doing excellent work, unanimously, in tree preservation.

Democracy restored for now, although the minutes still record the autoretired councillor’s absence, the PC website lists that seat as vacant, but the Cheshire East website, while having 4 notices of vacancies at other town / parish councils, does not give notice of one at Handforth. The saga continues …

 

[brogdale]

That imposter one

 

[Orang Utan]

Handforth = Stoneybridge

 

[Plumdaff]

.

 

[danny la rouge]

 

[T & P]

She's been invited to join the urban75 mod team.

Surely she’ll have no authority here to ban people?

 

[likesfish]

The Falklands island goverment is similar size but actually has a defence budget they infamously brought Austrian rifles rather than the Sa80.
The Army officer who is attached to command the Falklands defence force drew up his budget everything got ticked off except the new tyres for the landrovers which the Goverment discussed for 2 hours as they all drove landrovers

 

[two sheds]

The Falklands island goverment is similar size but actually has a defence budget they infamously brought Austrian rifles rather than the Sa80.
The Army officer who is attached to command the Falklands defence force drew up his budget everything got ticked off except the new tyres for the landrovers which the Goverment discussed for 2 hours as they all drove landrovers

Parkinson's Law isn't it? "The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved ". As I remember from the book his council waved through items costing tens of thousands of pounds but spent hours discussing a shed roof because they all had experience of roof costs .

 

[mx wcfc]

 

[T & P]

Might have been posted already but The Guardian has some new background information on the going-ons in the town.

It seems a campaigner had been trying to raise awareness of the behaviour of some of the players in the video, and had tried to draw the media’s attention to the full video of the meeting for days without success. But then someone had the idea to produce the highlights YouTube video and the 30-second snippet that was posted on Twitter, and the rest is history

'Good on her': how Jackie Weaver became an internet star

Handforth residents, a comedian and young political activists helped explosive parish council meeting go viral

www.google.co.uk

 

[cupid_stunt]

 

[kabbes]

 

[8ball]

This is too funny.

 

[editor]

 

[moochedit]

 

[moochedit]

My mum was a parish councilor for a few years (she has given it up now). Just sent it her and she said "Actually we did verge on that occasionally. It certainly rings true"

 

[neonwilderness]

 

[Shechemite]

I thought the chair showed a lack of initiative in failing to talk about maritime law and quote Magna Carta

 

[Artaxerxes]

 

[Puddy_Tat]

My mum was a parish councilor for a few years (she has given it up now). Just sent it her and she said "Actually we did verge on that occasionally. It certainly rings true"

having been involved with a few voluntary organisations, i can believe it...

 

[kabbes]

It is absolutely typical of every parish council meeting it has been my misfortune to attend

 

[crossthebreeze]

Pearoast

 

[ska invita]

Got to feel for Jackie!

 

[Edie]

Do they have parish councils in cities or just the country?

 

[DaveCinzano]

 

[DaveCinzano]

Do they have parish councils in cities or just the country?

Typically not in cities, but there are a very few, and new ones can be created.

 

[Edie]

Typically not in cities, but there are a very few, and new ones can be created.

Who decides the things they decide then? Just the main city council?

 

[Dom Traynor]

Do they have parish councils in cities or just the country?

Until recently only London explicitly banned them and theyre even permitted there now.

In Scotland and Wales the community council equivelants seem more widespread