A COUNCIL meeting was abandoned for the second time in a row after a fresh outburst from a councillor.
Maldon District Council attempted to hold a full council meeting on Thursday after the previous meeting last month was abandoned and the police called due to similar disorderly conduct.
In a short-lived rant, councillor Chrisy Morris made allegations of cover-ups while attempting to make a declaration, leading the chairman to eventually call for security.
The district council has previously said claims of corruption lacked evidence and were “completely unsubstantiated”.
Chairman Mark Heard once again closed the meeting early, citing disorderly conduct by Mr Morris.
Read more: Maldon District Council meeting ends early after disruption
Mr Morris shouted over the chairman as he attempted to move on to further items of business, saying he had been “badly let down by this council”.
Councillors voted “the member may not be heard” with regard to Mr Morris and then for him to be removed from the meeting. He refused to leave and Mr Heard called for security just 15 minutes into the meeting.
After an adjournment, Mr Heard said: “I am now going to close this meeting because of Mr Morris’ refusal to obey a resolution of council and his conduct has deliberately prevented the transaction of business.”
Items due to be discussed at the meeting included those unable to be debated last month, such as setting the district’s council tax demand.
But there were also new items, such as ratifying the new leader designate councillor Richard Siddall.
Mr Siddall was appointed after the resignation of his predecessor councillor Wendy Stamp, who stepped down following reports of threats made against councillors and council staff in November.
The findings of an investigation into Mr Morris’ behaviour, which concluded he had made “serious breaches of the code of conduct”, was one of the items due to be discussed at the previous meeting.
Despite the outburst, the council voted to agree the findings.
Mr Morris disputes the findings of the investigation.
According to the council’s website, the next full council meeting will be on February 24.
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