Interruptions halt council meeting

A full meeting of Scarborough Council at the town hall had to be adjourned twice due to interruptions from members of the public.

The first incident at Monday’s meeting followed a discussion about the scrapped plans for a £15m hotel complex at the site of Scarborough’s former indoor swimming pool.

Cllr Bill Chatt was in the process of asking a question about the council leader’s statement regarding the scrapped plans and the way in which information about it had been made public.

Council leader Cllr Steve Siddons, who described Cllr Chatt’s statement as “absolute rubbish”, was in the process of giving a full response when there was an interruption.

Mayor Cllr Eric Broadbent asked Cllr Siddons to pause. Then he said: “Would the members of the public please stop what you are doing or I’ll have to adjourn the meeting.”

Referring to members of the public, he stated: “If you’re not interested, could you please leave?”

An ultimatum of “half a minute” was given to those in the public gallery.

The mayor said: “Alright pal, are you done? Right, I’m going to adjourn the meeting for 10 minutes.”

A councillor in the chamber stated loudly: “Absolutely pathetic!”

Following an adjournment, the council meeting was reconvened, however, less than two minutes later another interruption followed – loud “giggling” from the gallery.

Cllr Broadbent adjourned the meeting again.

It was agreed that Cllr Siddons would provide a written response to Cllr Chatt’s question and the remainder of the meeting proceeded without further interruptions.