Inquiry into council’s Zoom meeting farce costs £85,000

AN INQUIRY into Handforth parish council, which achieved national notoriety after a chaotic Zoom meeting in lockdown went viral online, cost the taxpayer £85,000, a report has found.

During the video call in December 2020, then council leader, Brian Tolver, 74, shouted at Jackie Weaver, who was brought in to mediate proceedings. Seconds later, Ms Weaver, 63, removed Mr Tolver from the online chat.

When Aled Brewerton, the council vice-chairman, furiously demanded Ms Weaver “read and understand” the council’s rules, she ejected him too.

Clips from the meeting of the authority, now Handforth town council, emerged three months later and have since racked up around nine million views on Youtube.

However, Cheshire East council has revealed that its external investigation into that meeting, and of 21 complaints made between 2018 and November 2020 about Handforth councillors’ behaviour, has cost £85,716.

Ms Weaver, 63, told the BBC she was “shocked and horrified” by the cost. “At the moment, every tier of government is saying we have no money. So the last thing we should be doing is literally wasting money on things like this.”

Despite finding three councillors to be potentially in breach of the Members Code of Conduct, Cheshire East council could take no further action as they had resigned, its report said.

It said a number of “complications” had “prolonged the process and increased the total cost”.

This included the resignation of the three members due before the council’s sub-committee and an investigation that was “characterised by repeated and prolonged delays”.