New councillor co-opted shortly before meeting descends into chaos

Luke Dolby, owner of Honiton Tech Shop in Lace Walk, has been co-opted onto Honiton Town Council at a full meeting held at The Beehive this evening.

Mr Dolby was announced as the successful candidate after a second round of voting secured him a position. He was one of three men standing.

He addressed members of the council, along with a well-attended public gallery, explaining that he wished to become 'more involved with the community'.

Mr Dolby moved to Honiton in 2008 to live with his grandmother, Councillor Carol Gilson BEM, who has been a big part of his life growing-up.

Being the youngest member of the council, he hopes to become a representative figure for the Honiton youth and to work on the town's crime prevention.

Serena Sexton made an address, as the newly appointed chair of the Honiton Community Complex - the charity organisation in charge of running The Beehive.

She explained that The Beehive needed to 'tighten it's belt' in regards to expenditure and outlaid the actions being taken, which included one paid role becoming redundant.

She explained that a 'plan to becoming more self-sufficient' and not 'reliant on council pay-outs' was in place.

This meant looking into sponsorship models, seeking advice for grant application and increasing the prices of room hire and booking fees.

The meeting then turned its attention to Item 13 on the agenda - 'to consider the composition of committees'.

Councillor Caroline Kolek asked if a HR committee meeting had happened that afternoon, despite advice from the clerk and legal advice suggesting it would be unconstitutional, or 'unlawful'.

The Council were informed by the mayor that it did.

A motion of no confidence in the HR committee was proposed and seconded by Cllr Hanratty and Cllr Pollington.

Cllr Kolek reminded the mayor it now needed to go to the vote and be discussed.

The Town Clerk, Mark Tredwin, advised the mayor that he could not ignore the proposal, which he continued to do.

Mr Tredwin declared that he would be signing-off with immediate effect, after producing a medical note declaring him unfit for work.

According to Cllr Kolek: "The clerk was lied about and because of this staff and some councillors left the meeting.

"This is on the back of many emails by two councillors over the last week which have read as bullying and intimidating."

Cllr Duncan Sheridan-Shaw spoke after only to confirm his resignation as chair of the HR Committee.

He said: "After my intervention and suggestions for collaboration and mediation were refused, I resigned as chair of the Human Resources Commitee."

Adding: "Today a meeting was held, whether it was legal or not is not for me to say but I refused to attend this meeting."

Mayor John Zarczynski commented: "The item that has caused this whole disruption this evening was added onto the agenda without my knowledge and came as a complete surprise to me."