Police called to council meeting after disorder at tribute to Amess
Argument over whether to stand during minute’s silence for killed politician descends into chaos
POLICE had to be called to a council meeting after an argument over whether to stand during a minute’s silence descended into chaos.
The Maldon district council forum, in Essex, on Thursday night, saw councillors walk out in protest and abandon the agenda after one member repeatedly demanded to raise a point of order.
At one point, an elected representative cried, “You have no authority over me”, after the chairman asked him to leave. Insults of “idiot” were also hurled during the meeting.
The row erupted at the beginning of the meeting when a member challenged the decision to remain seated during a minute’s silence to remember Sir David Amess, the MP for nearby Southend West who was stabbed to death.
“We should be upstanding, one minute’s silence upstanding,” interrupted Chrisy Morris, the independent councillor for Heybridge West. He shook his head during the silence after receiving no response.
The full council meeting was due to discuss bringing sanctions against Mr Morris over previous allegations of bullying. The council’s joint standards committee had found he had brought the authority into disrepute, following two independent investigations.
When the minute’s silence had finished, Mr Morris, who rejects the allegations, broke out into repeated shouts of “point of order”, a request that was ignored. Mark Heard, the council chairman, tried to interject to no avail, prompting the other councillors present, numbering more than a dozen, to vote to remove Mr Morris.
“You can’t make me, you idiots, you can’t make me leave the meeting, I’m democratically elected,” a furious Mr Morris responded, adding: “You have no authority over me, do you, Mark?”
Mr Heard reminded Mr Morris of the allegations against him, saying: “I have to say, Mr Morris, you are living in a world of insult, allegations and conflict.”
But he retorted: “At least I’ve got the testicular fortitude to sit here and speak my truth.”
Ten minutes into the meeting, the police were called and told Mr Morris he was “breaching the peace”, while the chairman told officers “he’s got no right to be here”. Mr Morris refused to leave his seat, replying: “You can’t make me leave the building, it’s in the constitution. I’m entitled to be here.”
The meeting was adjourned and saw mutters of “ridiculous” and short-tempered interactions between members. After 20 minutes, the chairman said: “Members, I would ask you to rise and walk out in protest and I will close the meeting.” Every councillor stood up and walked out amid concerns for the duty of care of members, leaving an aghast Mr Morris alone filming the scenes on his mobile phone.
Last night, Cllr Wendy Stamp, the council’s leader, said “enough is enough”, adding: “The public may be seeing Cllr Morris’s disruptive behaviour for the first time at last night’s council meeting.
“However, this has been a regular occurrence and we cannot tolerate this type of behaviour any longer and put members and staff through any further distress... His actions clearly disrupted debate on the sanctions from taking place.” But Mr Morris stood by his actions and told the BBC it was “undemocratic” for the council not to allow him to raise a point of order.
Essex Police confirmed officers attended to a “disturbance” at the council offices but no arrests were made.
‘We cannot tolerate this type of behaviour any longer and put members and staff through any further distress’