Dissent at Town Forum

The newly re-elected chairman of Bexhill Town Forum came under repeated fire for his handling of the public meeting at the De La Warr Pavilion this week.

Paul Plim was roundly criticised for introducing an "unsuitable" item onto the agenda, for re-organising the order, and also allowing speakers to talk for too long.

Having opened the meeting and dealt with early business which included the election of himself and vice-chairman Conor Hill, he brought forward item 11 on the agenda which was a presentation on Royal Mail by CWU spokesman Peter Sinnott.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Plim then handed over to the vice-chairman, having declared his own personal interest as a postal worker, and vacated his seat to listen from the auditorium.

Mr Sinnott, who is based in Eastbourne, told the Forum about proposed privatisation and how this would "absolutely decimate" the existing service if it went ahead.

He over-ran his allotted time but was anyway stopped in his tracks by objections from the public who felt as a national issue this was not appropriate subject matter for the Town Forum.

A determined hand was raised in the audience by Vicky Price who said: "Forgive me if I am wrong, but I didn't hear Bexhill mentioned once."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The motion under consideration had been that members would commit to opposing plans to break up and privatise Royal Mail and to support the 'Keep the Post Public Coalition'.

Rother District Council leader Carl Maynard commented that a basic principle underpinning the Town Forum was that "it is never seen to be political" and said that party politics should be kept out of proceedings.

He described the introduction of this type of discussion as "a retrograde step".

Nick Hollington then proposed that the motion be withdrawn as "unsuitable" for the Town Forum and not be taken further '“ a show of hands revealed full support.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The chairman was then criticised for having brought the Royal Mail presentation forward in the running order at possible cost to other items which there might not then be time for, and this happened again following an early round of Question Time when four councillors taking part were each being given five minutes to talk and therefore taking up remaining time.

One gentleman stood up and commented: "I don't want to sit here for an hour listening to these councillors going on."

"It's called democracy, ladies and gentlemen," was the response from Cllr Maynard.

The meeting concluded with Mr Plim telling the Forum the next event would be at the DLWP on Tuesday November 30 from 6.30pm.

Afterwards West Parade resident Jim Milne said he thought the meeting was "a disaster" and that "unfortunately not as well organised as normal".