The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Vocal protestsers shut down council meeting at Town Hall
Peterborough’s police chief has praised the actions of his officers during a protest at the Town Hall which led to the postponement of a city council meeting.
Superintendent Andy Gipp said officers were right not to arrest around 15 to 20 protesters despite calls to do so by former council leader and mayor Cllr John Peach, who remarked: “We should not have capitulated to mob rule.”
The protesters were demanding the resignation from the council of Cllr Andy Coles.
Cllr Coles was previously DeputyPoliceandCrimeCommissioner for Cambridgeshire but resigned from that role following the airing of a Channel 4 investigation which claimed he had a relationship with a young activist while working as an undercover officer.
The programme centred on an investigation into the activities of undercover police officers in the 1990s who infiltrated a group of animal rights activists. The programme interviewed a woman who is taking legal action against the Met Police and made allegations against Cllr Coles.
Cllr Peach said: “The police should have arrested them so the meeting could have continued. We should not have capitulated to mob rule.”
However, Supt Gipp said: “The officers acted exactly as I would have wanted them to do, balancing the rights of the individuals protesting against the necessity of completing an ongoing meeting.
“We will obviously plan for the future, working very closely with the council to allow public meetings to continue movingforwardwithoutbeing disrupted to the degree that it prevents the council doing its business.”
The protests on Wednesday evening last week were organised by COPS (Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance) and began outside the Town Hall before carrying on during the full council meeting.
The mayor told the protesters to be quiet before ordering the public gallery to be emptied. He then left the Council Chamber while police acted as mediators between the two sides.
In the end, Cllr Fox returned to the chamber at around 8pm to announce the postponement of the meeting as the protesters would not take down a banner from the gallery unless Cllr Coles left the meeting.
The mayor’s announcement was greeted with chants of “shame on you” from the public gallery directed at Cllr Coles. Council leader Cllr John Holdich has now agreed to meet with representatives from COPS.
Following the adjournment of the meeting he said: “I do not think we had any option - they would not behave themselves.”
Labour group leader Cllr Ed Murphy said: “It’s a shame we did not manage to do our business. There were really important motions about Peterborough’s future.”
Asked if the postponement was the right decision, he replied: “Rather than remove people for legitimate protest? Yes.”
Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Nick Sandford said: “The council was in a position where we did not have any sort of option.
“There were people who were there disrupting the meeting and displayed a banner that was offensive.”
Cllr John Whitby, of UKIP, said: “I would rather the decision have been to throw them out of the building, but that would have been difficult.
“I accept people have the right to protest, which they were doing outside, but to take a stance where they were totally disrupting and making allegations that can’t be answered is completely unacceptable.”
The rearranged meeting was to be held last night but the public gallery was shut due to fears of a second protest. The agenda included a motion on building a new foot and cycle bridge at Fletton Quays.