DUNCHURCH parish council’s meeting to discuss protecting the statue of Lord John Douglas-Montagu-Scott had to be adjourned last night (Monday 8th November 2021) due to a procedural issue.

A member of the public refused to stop filming the meeting when asked to, because another member of the public did not want to be filmed. It led to a standoff and the official meeting business could not begin.

Village resident Paul Waller wanted to record the meeting of the council and told SRN: “The video recording made by me of the meeting is widely accessible and unedited. There was no attempt to video record anyone but the members of the council at this meeting. There was never a wish to video record members of the public at this meeting. All present were fully aware videoing of the parish council was taking place. The camera was set in a position dictated by the parish council.”

Dunchurch parish council (DPC) chair Cllr Tracey Price responded that the council couldn’t clarify exactly where the camera was pointing. She said the person who did not want to be filmed might have been in front of the camera, despite Cllr Price telling Mr Waller where to put the camera. She also said Mr Waller had begun making an audio recording before the meeting had officially begun.

Cllr Price said: “It wasn’t fair on the people who came. We didn’t even get to the agenda, only the first paragraph about the filming.

“We adjourned the meeting and will take measures to prevent this happening when we reconvene.”

Statue on the agenda

The meeting was attended by members of the public who had come to hear discussions on how to protect the statue of  Lord John Douglas-Montagu-Scott.

Roadworks at the Dun Cow crossroads will see the green around the statue made smaller, bringing traffic closer to the much-loved statue.

Cllr Price said: “We don’t own the statue but we all have a responsibility to protect it. 

“The roadworks will cut the statue’s green away so traffic will be closer to him. Although he’s protected at the moment, after the works finish he will be more available to the traffic and there’s nothing in place to protect him.

“All it was [on the agenda] was just a discussion. We have to put it in the meeting, to follow the right protocol. It was just to discuss looking at moving him if that’s the best thing or putting metal railings around him like there used to be. The idea was just to discuss it.

“We don’t want to see him damaged.”

Cllr Price said that a Facebook post by the Friends of Dunchurch Society (FODS) had caused a scare in the village that the statue was to be imminently moved.