The webcast of Monday’s Frodsham Town Council meeting is now available.
Filming was halted for a period while the meeting was suspended by the Chair. Cllr T Reynolds was making an apology as required by the sanctions imposed on him at the previous full council meeting following Cheshire West and Chester Council’s Standards Complaints Panel decision that he had breached FTC’s Code of Conduct.
The apology required was to Cheshire West and Chester Councillors A Dawson and L Riley about the lack of respect Cllr Reynolds had shown to them in an email dated 2 November 2015. The email content was judged by the Standards Complaints Panel to be hostile, unjustified, abusive and inaccurate. Unfortunately, Cllr Reynolds chose to present his ‘apology’ in a sarcastic way citing mis-spending of Council funds, which not the subject of the complaint.
Cllr J Critchley, FTC Chair, was forced to adjourn the meeting when Cllr Reynolds refused to stop speaking when she tried to raise this point of order.
The meeting resumed when Cllr Reynolds sat down. Ultimately both parties agreed to draw a line under the matter.
Having reviewed the legal situation regarding the filming of council meetings by members of the public, we have now withdrawn our objection to the circulation of private films of the meeting.
A recent Legal Topic Note produced by National Association of Local Councils (November 2016) has highlighted several areas that need amending in FTC’s Standing Orders following legislative changes. Consequently the Standing Orders will be reviewed at the next Policy & Procedure Committee meeting on 15 February.