Ludlow councillors 'not treating public with respect' in town walls row

An extraordinary full council meeting was held on September 24 to discuss legal advice and the response to a letter in relation to the collapsed section of a wall next to St Laurence’s Church in Ludlow.

The Parochial Church Council (PCC) has threatened Ludlow Town Council (LTC) with enforcement action after claiming it is not responsible or liable for the maintenance and upkeep of the wall, which collapsed in 2013.

However, while the bulk of the meeting was held in private, residents were invited to ask questions during a public open session.

LTC’s standing orders state that a member of public should not speak for longer than three minutes, with the total amount designated for the session being 15 minutes. Accusations were made about the council not being transparent, with ex-councillor Stuart Waite accusing four members of being biased in their decision-making.

Gill George, who lives in Corve Street, spoke about the historical status of the church and how she couldn’t find any record of the churchyard being legally closed, meaning that it must be the liability of the PCC.

However, despite an alarm telling Ms George her three minutes had elapsed, she continued to speak, saying she would like to finish because it was an important issue.

When her speech had gone over by 45 seconds, Councillor Viv Parry called for the attention of the chair, Councillor Di Lyle. Ms George continued before the deputy chair, Councillor Katherine Cowell, interjected by saying “you’ve had your three minutes”.

In total she said that five times as Ms George continued with her speech. Once Ms George had finished, Councillor Parry told Councillor Lyle that other members have been chairs over the years and have told people to ‘please sit down’.

“You did not do that,” said Councillor Parry.

“Please have authority and don’t be scared of this woman.”

Afterwards, Ms George spoke to the Local Democray Reporting Service.

“I think it was a very disappointing meeting,” she said.

“There was no sense of councillors treating the public with respect, and they made no attempt to answer the very serious concerns that members of the public raised.

“I was trying to explain the very serious concerns about councillors ignoring their own code of conduct and was shouted down by councillors. I think this is appalling.

“What lies behind the lack of accountability, transparency and openness that we saw is actually a very serious issue. And it’s my belief that the PCC and sadly this town council, working with the PCC, are seeking to shift the cost of repairing the churchyard walls directly onto Ludlow residents.

“And that’s not acceptable. Those walls are owned by the church, and legally it is increasingly clear that liability for repair of those lies with the church.

“Our parochial church leaders need to get back to the Church of England and say, ‘come on guys, we spend money maintaining cathedrals and bishops palaces, how about spending some of that money, instead of keeping it in the bank and earning interest, on our lovely, beautiful church here in Ludlow?’.

“We deserve that funding just as much as the bishops and their palaces.”