Police called on pensioners trying to attend meeting
A GROUP of pensioners had the police called on them for alleged anti-social behaviour when they tried to attend a council meeting to find out how taxpayers’ money is being spent.
A patrol car with its siren blaring and blue lights flashing pulled up outside the small parish hall in their quiet village after the retired group refused to leave.
The group, whose oldest member is 80 years old, claims the meeting should have been open to the public, but said members were told they were “not welcome” by the council’s clerk.
They had gone to the regular monthly meeting of Ynysawdre Community Council near Bridgend to find out what happens to their council tax contributions.
But they denied there was any “commotion” which would have justified the attendance of the two officers at the evening meeting.
They also said no arrests were made or names taken and they shared a joke with the officers as they left shortly afterwards.
A South Wales Police spokeswoman said police were called to “a report of an anti-social behaviour nuisance incident at a closed council meeting”.
But she added: “Upon police arrival, there was no disturbance and a group of people co-operated to leave the meeting. There were no offences disclosed by any person and no breach of peace.”
Geoff Letman, 63, who was one of the Ynysawdre Elderly Residents’ Association (YERA) members at the meeting on February 14, said: “It transpired that the clerk had made a call to police saying there was a disturbance at the hall.”
Group chairman Gareth Jones, 76, a former teacher and education officer, said the clerk had refused to start the meeting until they left, claiming it was a closed meeting and Bridgend council’s monitoring officer had given her permission to exclude them.
“There was no disturbance. The only person who raised their voice was the clerk,” he said.
When asked about the incident, Ynysawdre Community Council’s clerk Natalie Morgan claimed she had also been forced to call the police to remove the association’s members during the council’s meeting on December 13. She refused to comment further.
The police spokeswoman said there was no record on their system for this date.
YERA member John Adams, 72, a retired supervisor who was outside the hall on February 14 waiting for the meeting to start, said he assumed there had been a serious accident further up the road when he saw the patrol car speed past with its blue lights and siren on.
“They went to the community centre first, but must’ve realised they had gone to the wrong hall and turned around and came back,” he said.
“The police didn’t even ask us who we were and didn’t search us,” added Mr Jones. “We were having a joke and a laugh with them.”
Mr Letman said: “I approached them and asked why they were there. They said, ‘There’s been a report of a disturbance.’
“I said, ‘As you can see there’s no disturbance here.’”
Mr Jones said the call to the police at last month’s meeting was the culmination of three years’ worth of wrangling between the elderly residents’ group and the community council.
He said relations deteriorated after an 84-year-old member of their group asked why the community council’s precept (the charge it levies on residents) had risen.
He wrote to Mrs Morgan in March 2014 asking for an explanation.
Mrs Morgan replied in May of that year that the increase of £30,000 was mainly so the community council could provide services being cut by Bridgend council, including youth services and play schemes.
She said the restoration of the parish hall had also taken “a considerable amount of money”.
And while the association received a list of estimated community council expenditure for that year via a local county councillor, Mr Jones said it lacked the detail they required and they asked the community council for more information.
He claimed that information has not been forthcoming and they are continuing their push for answers.
Mr Jones said that as well as attending meetings over the past three years, they have also written numerous letters to the council and submitted Freedom of Information requests, which he said had not been answered.
County councillor Haydn Morgan, an associate member of YERA, said he is fully behind the group’s efforts to find the answers they are seeking.
Bridgend council said it was looking into the matter.