A Welshpool Town Council meeting erupted into chaos on Wednesday night (May 1), with one councillor saying he was “appalled” at the conduct in the chamber.

A routine agenda item about council rules led to a furious row between two members and an officer, with one councillor taking to his feet to carry out his full-throated tirade over standing orders.

In scenes reminiscent of the notorious Handforth Parish Council 'Jackie Weaver' meeting that went viral during the Covid pandemic, participants clashed over the number of committees a member is allowed to sit on.

A recommendation in a previous meeting suggested increasing the maximum number from three to five.

Cllr David France backed retaining the current number, saying: “The more committees you’re on the less time you have to give. We already struggle with some councillors not having time to do the full reading for certain committees.

“We’ve received criticism for the difficulty of making decisions within the council and that’s in the current situation of smaller committees. Larger committees may exacerbate this problem and defeat the purpose of having them.”

But in response, Cllr Phil Pritchard stood up in the chamber, pointing and raising his voice at Cllr France and citing a point of order.

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He said: “The recommendation was to choose between four or five committees, not three. We are discussing what is recommended.

"The chair of the committee is not doing its job properly by not telling that gentleman he’s out of order.”

Chair of the committee, Cllr Alison Davies, labelled the tone of Cllr Pritchard’s remarks “entirely inappropriate”, and soon a row had erupted between finance officer Vanessa Voysey, Cllr Davies and Cllr Pritchard, who was asked to cite a specific standing order for his objection.

Ms Voysey told him: “You cannot, in a meeting, randomly stand up and say, ‘he can’t say that’. You need to clarify on what you believe is being done incorrectly.”

As the atmosphere calmed down, Cllr Billy Spencer told the trio: “I’m appalled, not just by Cllr Pritchard but by the three of you.

"I’m appalled by the chair, the finance officer and Cllr Pritchard for wasting our evening.”

At a previous meeting, Welshpool’s mayor Cllr Nick Howells revealed that he was choosing not to run again for a second term, citing “disgraceful behaviour” over his past year as head of the council.

At Wednesday’s meeting he added: “We’ve spent an inordinate amount of time discussing standing orders, terms of reference, council policies.

“We are elected to represent the people of the town and find a way forward and I think the local people couldn’t care less about standing orders, terms of reference or policy wordings.

“They want to see the skate park built, the Anne Holloway centre put to use, and other matters like those, not us discussing a particular word we don’t like in our policies which is not what we’re here for.”