Council boss sorry over rhyme retort
THE leader of Cheshire East Council has been branded ‘childish’ and ‘disrespectful’ for reciting a children’s rhyme to silence a councillor asking questions about the flooding emergency in Poynton.
Councillor Sam Corcoran has apologised after he quoted Hilaire Belloc’s Cautionary Verses at Coun Michael Beanland during a cabinet meeting question time.
The Poynton member had been asking about the council’s response to the floods and why - if it had been alerted to the potential emergency on Sunday - it had taken until Wednesday evening to act. Residents had asked him to raise the point but Coun Corcoran believed he was taking too long and began his recital.
The council leader asked his Poynton colleague five times to state his question, to which Coun Beanland replied on one occasion, ‘I will do but these facts are relevant’. Coun Corcoran
turned his microphone off, said ‘nobody was hearing him’ and then recited: “The Chief Defect of Henry King,
“Was chewing little bits of String,
“At last he swallowed some which tied,
“Itself in ugly Knots inside.”
This sparked from some people.
A clearly surprised Coun Beanland told the council leader: “That is not the caring council that you are trying to put forward.” groans
And Coun Corcoran retorted: “And neither is your behaviour today.”
The bizarre exchange sparked a backlash on social media, one tweet said: “I’m frankly disgusted. 30+ children had to be evacuated from their nursery due to rapidly rising water for the 2nd time in 3 yrs & there’s families, old & very young, who are in temp accommodation because their houses are contaminated. Have some respect, this is very serious!”
Another tweeted: “Show some repect (sic). These questions need answers, not ignorant and childish behaviour.”
Coun Corcoran has apologised and said he regretted ‘the way in which the exchange between Coun Beanland and myself played out’ and admitted he had been ‘thoughtless’.
He said: “A number of speakers, both members of the public and visiting councillors, had raised concerns and questions regarding the flooding in the meeting, and had received replies from cabinet members.
“I recognise that Coun Beanland was speaking at the request of residents. However, as chair of the cabinet meeting I have a responsibility to ensure that everyone attending to speak has a fair opportunity to be heard.
“Coun Beanland was speaking during a time allocated for questions to cabinet members. This time is limited to twenty minutes. This period followed public speaking time, for which ten minutes is allocated.
“Recognising both the number of speakers for each of these agenda items and the importance of the matters raised, I took a flexible approach and allowed each of these agenda items to exceed the allotted time.
“However, recognising the time pressure, and the fact that other speakers had already spoken on and been answered regarding this matter, I asked Coun Beanland a number of times to ask a question that cabinet could answer.
“I also assured him that a written answer would be provided to any concerns he had and that a detailed review was going to be carried out and that he should pass his comments and concerns to that review.
“Coun Beanland continued to speak for several minutes, despite me reminding him that other councillors were waiting.”