A RESIDENT called for compensation for the voters shut out of last month's annual town assembly in Henley, at Monday night's annual meeting of Beaudesert and Henley Joint Parish Council.
At least eight residents were unable to attend the assembly at the Baptist Church hall on 19th April.
Malcolm Coulter, of High Street, said during public participation session of the parish council meeting on Monday: "I understand that compensation of £750 is being considered for voters locked out from polling stations at the general election.
Is the joint parish council or chairmen of the town assembly either past or present going to take the same course of action for voters locked out of the town assembly, and if not, what is their reason? Could I have an immediate answer please?"
Cllr Les Goodman, who was unanimously re-elected as council chairman, said: "You certainly cannot have an immediate answer."
The council reiterated that the decision was made as 100 residents were already inside, filling the hall to its capacity, and to admit, any more would have breached health and safety regulations.
Cllr Hadley said: "When the hall was full to capacity, we shut the door. There were six or eight people who could not get in, but they were not locked out, we shut the door. The alternative was to cancel the meeting. In view of the high feeling in the room at the time, Chris Milsom and I would have been under more criticism than when we made the decision to carry on in the best interests of both parishes at the time."
Cllr George Matheou said: "The assembly was not an election, it was the annual assembly."
Cllr Milsom said: "We could not be in the position of breaking health and safety and fire rules, which pre vented more than 100 people in. We had a choice and made that choice. Had we made that call to adjourn, we could well have ended up with a riot on our hands."
Chairman Cllr Goodman advised Mr Coulter to write to the two chairmen of the assembly.
The council also discussed the parish council's representation on the Henley News Online website.
Last week, Cllr Matheou said he would be drawing a line under the issue of Henley Town Improvement Committee's £3,000 grant, after suggesting a deferment.
But on Monday night, he brought the issue up again, complaining about an article posted on the website suggesting that the payment of the grant should be "frozen."
He said: "I know I drew a line under this at the last meeting, but this is incorrect reporting using my name. What I want to do is to reach an agreement. Either Bill [Cllr Leech, who runs the website], you copy me into the circulation list and I can clear my name of nonsense or you agree to receive a reply from me without changes."
Cllr Leech said that under the Data Protection Act he could not release addresses but people could respond to articles. Cllr Matheou replied: "Life's too short for this. Do you accept or not that I did not say about freezing the grant?"
Cllr Leech replied that it was all down to interpretation. A large proportion of people in the town were under the impression the grant was frozen, he said.
Cllr Goodman intervened and said that the grant had been deferred, to which Cllr Leech retorted: "Therefore, the two are similar."
The chairman said councillors were concerned about the way the council was represented on the website. Reports should be correct and not someone's personal blog.
Vice-chairman Cllr Roger Hubbocks said there should be a procedure in place where things came via the council's clerk: Much if what had been published in Henley Online News had been incorrect and the council had not had the opportunity to correct it."
Cllr Leech responded that he did give the councillors a chance to take a look at Henley News Online on Mondays or Tuesdays before the fortnightly publication on Thursdays. "I very rarely write things personally about the parish council," he said.
"What appears in Henley News Online about the parish council is usually written by the Stratford Herald and it's reprinted with their approval, or it is written by a named member of the community.
Very little put in is written by me. I welcome a dialogue with the parish council in how to get over this long running problem."
Report by Susan Evans - Stratford Herald - Thursday 13th May 2010
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