My parish council does as much as possible in secret so imagine my surprise when, in last week's full council meeting, they voted not to exclude members of press and public (not that there were any there but it would have kept commercially sensitive information off the public record until it was no longer sensitive).
The parish council is controversially selling a building it owns. They agreed to sell it in a closed meeting and have hidden much of the detail from the public. It's been on the market a year and there have been no offers. Last week a recommendation came to council to reduce the asking price from £350k to £300k or to sell it in a modern auction.
It was proposed to reduce the price for 3 months and if it still doesn't sell then go to auction with a guide price of £230k. There was some discussion about the reserve which had been recommended to be set at £250k with an amendment discussed to set it to £260k.
I interjected with a point of order saying the meeting should go into closed session because if the reserve is in the minutes nobody is going to offer more than the reserve and the council would fail in its duty to maximise income from the sale. It was voted down with much heckling about me wanting to do something in private whilst criticising them for being secretive all the time.
This was 2½ hours into a hostile and unprofessional meeting and myself and another councillor had had enough at this point and walked out of the meeting, leaving them to put the council at risk of breaking the law through their sheer ineptitude and petty politicking.
This isn't a question, just sharing a nugget from my chaotic council for your amusement/despair.
