Handforth Parish Council meets again and members of the public cause chaos

Virgin Radio

19 Feb 2021, 17:17

Poor old Handforth Parish Council. They just want to do their meetings.

Thousands of people joined in on Zoom for the latest instalment of the country's most famous parish council meeting. 

They went viral a few weeks ago after a bizarre Zoom meeting back in December was discovered. 

In case you missed it, adviser Jackie Weaver was trying to control a group of councillors, who weren't having it.

Many memorable phrases were all over social media and the country had a new found interest in grass roots politics.  

On Wednesday this week, the council met for the first time since the viral meeting.

This time, they had an audience of more than 3,000 people on YouTube and plenty of others who joined the conference call.

People were quoting phrases from last time, including: "Read the standing orders, read them and understand them", and mimicking the members. 

One audience member was wearing a large safari hat, as another regularly played the Benny Hill Show theme tune.

Councillor John Smith clashed with Brian Tolver - the chairman who was booted out of that previous meeting by Ms Weaver.

Mr Tolver said Ms Weaver had been running that meeting "illegally". Mr Smith disagreed, saying the comments made by Mr Tolver and others towards her were "abusive".

Mr Tolver said: "I have much to dispute in what councillor Smith just said...I just don't want to bore everybody but he was wrong on just about every point he raised."

At this point, a member of the public asked if Mr Tolver wanted to apologise.

Instead, Mr Tolver asked for the person to be muted.

At the end of the chaotic meeting, Mr Smith said: "Hopefully next time we'll be a bit more slick about it and the events of the last couple of weeks will have faded into the distance, so only those who are really interested in the parish council are here, rather than those who just want to act the fool."

Something tells us it won't fade anytime soon.