ANOTHER Handforth Parish Council meeting has descended into chaos this evening as chair Cllr Brian Tolver defended his actions during the viral clip.

Throughout the virtual planning and council meetings this evening (February 17), councillors battled tetchy disagreements and an unruly public gallery during their three-hour session.

It also included a heated clash between Cllr Tolver — one of the main players in the viral clip from earlier this month — and Cllr John Smith over the December 10 meeting in question.

Cllr Tolver said: “[Jackie Weaver] had no right to exclude me, however much she did not like it.

“Councillors and members of the public should only speak with the permission of the chair. That’s not a power trip, it is just how a democratic system works, otherwise we have a loss of order and chaos as we have seen this evening.

“In the second [December 10] meeting, the full council one, I was upset about being excluded [earlier] so I asked her what she had done and why.

“She then ejected me without the authority. There’s no circumstances in which one person, not even the chair, can remove a person alone.”

AS IT HAPPENED: READ OUR LIVEBLOG ON THE MEETING

His view challenged by Cllr Smith, who said that Cllr Tolver had left the Zoom waiting room of his own volition.

He said: “You stated that the meeting was illegal and you continued to say that. Jackie Weaver then placed three councillors in the Zoom waiting room.

“When she returned to the waiting room, you had left. She had not clicked the button to kick you out.

“Jackie Weaver did not throw you out. You left of your volition.”

The meeting was characterised by frequent public interferences, with some holding up pictures of Jackie Weaver, one called for a vote of no confidence in chair Brian Tolver, and others said Cllrs Smith, Samson, and Moore should show him more respect.

The councillors also clashed over planning references — with Cllr Tolver saying that those applications listed on the agenda with an incorrect reference could not be debated legally.

There were also disputes over the absence Cllrs Burkhill and Brewerton, and the retrospective secondment of officers to run past meetings — with that decision being deferred, despite clerk Ashley Comiskey Dawson advising that it would draw a line under the Jackie Weaver episode.

However, one item did receive unanimous support, as the four members agreed to submit £10,000 of funding for the 130 bus ‘in principle’.

The next HPC meeting will be on March 16.