Speech ‘jeered’ at full council
Royal Borough: Member of public shocked to be heckled
Former and current councillors have lambasted the ‘shocking’ and ‘shameful’ heckling of a public speaker at a Royal Borough meeting last week.
On Thursday, February 29, a meeting of the full council saw a series of members of the public stand up to ask questions of cabinet members over matters of concern for the community.
Windsor resident Sarah Walker was among them, wishing to ask about a question on the possibility of the closure of the Windsor Museum in the Guildhall.
She opened by thanking prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate for Windsor, Jack Rankin, for his ‘continued support’ for a petition against the closure, which had reached north of 1,100 signatures.
But she was swiftly interrupted by a series of shouts from across the chamber, which have been described as ‘mocking jeers’ by Ms Walker herself and those criticising the outbursts.
Ms Walker was asked combative questions about Mr Rankin, amid ‘general laugher and noise’, causing her to pause before she had properly begun her question.
She was asked: “Is [Mr Rankin] in Warwick?”
Mr Rankin formerly represented the Castle ward for the Conservatives in the borough, but stepped down to stand as a parliamentary candidate for Warwick and Leamington in 2019.
Ms Walker said she was then heckled by two other councillors, asking why Mr Rankin was not there.
Speaking to the chamber, Ms Walker enquired if it was normal for council to ‘heckle and laugh at resident questions.’
Leader of the Conservatives, Councillor Maureen Hunt, called a point of order to the Royal Borough Mayor, Cllr Neil Knowles.
At the end of the meeting, Cllr Knowles apologised to Ms Walker, saying the outbursts were ‘frankly unacceptable.’
“If we’re going to encourage people to take part in local democracy, we’ve got to behave better than that,” he said.
Ms Walker told the Advertiser that she found the experience ‘quite a shock’.
“Several people came up to me in the break and said, ‘That was dreadful and we're sorry you were treated that way, as a member of the public,’” she said.
“I do hope to receive public apologies at the next council meeting from all individuals.”
Since then, Cllr Hunt has further decried the incident, saying she had never seen such ‘abominable behaviour’ towards residents speaking during Public Questions – describing it as a ‘disgraceful spectacle’.
Other councillors and former councillors have also made criticisms.
Leader of the council Simon Werner acknowledged that one of his cabinet members did shout out an interruption – Cllr Richard Coe, cabinet member for household and regulatory services.
His reason, said Cllr Werner, was that he was concerned Ms Walker was on the cusp of making a political speech, given her association with Windsor Conservatives.
Nonetheless, Cllr Coe was ‘wrong’ to respond in this manner and should have instead raised a point of order with the Mayor, said Cllr Werner.
He acknowledged only the one councillor shouting out and said he was not aware of others.
Cllr Werner added that despite the slip-up, the nature of the shout was not ‘rude or vulgar’ like public speakers used to receive under former administrations.
“We used to have a really toxic culture where being aggressively rude to public speakers [and] really quite vile to fellow councillors was the norm,” said Cllr Werner.
“That has ended.
“We’ve made massive strides in wiping out the toxic culture and we’ll continue to pursue that avenue.
“Councillors, public speakers have to be able to go to the council and not feel personally insulted.”
Cllr Coe told the Advertiser he felt he could not comment at this time because it is subject to ‘multiple codes of conduct against several councillors’.