'Sandra. You are not chair. Be quiet': Row erupts at parish council over poll about whether it should be dissolved
24 July 2023, 15:24 | Updated: 24 July 2023, 16:11
A terse confrontation between has gripped viewers as bile and simmering anger came to the fore at a meeting of Thornton-Le-Dale parish council.
In scenes similar to the Handforth Council meeting that went viral, the North Yorkshire parish council saw angry scenes when one councillor challenged the authority of another.
Cllr Sandra Kathleen Bell challenged current seat holder Cllr Marguerite Markham, when she was reading out the results of a poll of residents, the majority of whom voted calling for the parish council to be dissolved.
A fortnight ago, a poll was held to determine whether villagers wanted to dissolve the parish council and elect another.
244 people voted, with 180 in favour of dissolution and just 64 supporting the current council. However, the parish council chose to dismiss the result as “undemocratic”, because only 16% of the village electorate voted.
Cllr Markham, reading out the numbers of the poll, was interrupted by Cllr Bell, dressed in pink, who told her: No, no that is not how our elections work.
“Sorry, first past the post, there’s no way that is appropriate. The way it’s put here is nonsense.”
Parish council meeting descends into chaos
But she is given short shrift by Cll Markham, who tells her: “Sandra, you are not chair, be quiet.”
Cllr Bell replies: “No I’m not, but neither are you acting in any democratic manner. You cannot report the results of the election they way they have here. It’s ridiculous.”
A member of the audience then catches her ire - and she scolds him: “Sorry are you a councillor at all? No that’s right you’ve never stood, I remember now.”
After further exchanges, including an extended awkward silence, the council then hear the majority of people who voted want them dissolved, but Cllr Markham says they will continue to serve.
Then after one further angry back and forth, the whole council, save the clerk, storm out of the meeting.
The heated exchange came after Cllr Markham was forced to berate one person in the audience for noise from their phone.
In the 2020 Handforth Parish Council meeting, chairman Brian Tolver told stand-in clerk Jackie Weaver she had ‘no authority’ to take charge.
She kicked out the chairman - and was lauded for standing up to him - after he angrily told her to ‘read the standing orders’ in an infamous sound-bite from the meeting.
