Can a seconder withdraw their second from a motion under debate?

Question

At our last parish council meeting a motion was proposed and seconded.  Debate then took place, and as the debate progressed the seconder changed their mind about supporting the proposal.  To simplify a longer story, they ended up saying 'I no longer want to second the motion'.

The chair refused to accept that, saying that once a motion was under debate, only the proposer could withdraw the motion with agreement of the seconder.  I looked at our standing orders and can see nothing about the seconder being able to withdraw.  Has anyone seen this before?  I think the chair was correct btw.

Answer 1

There is no specific provision for this in the model standing orders and I believe that the chair's interpretation was correct. The seconder must hope that having stated their wish to no longer support the motion, others will do likewise and the motion will fail.

You are very lucky to have a chair who has actually read the standing orders. Hen's teeth!