Jackie Weaver did NOT have the authority, official reports have found

Jackie Weaver did NOT have the authority! SIX official reports after £85,000 probe into Handforth Parish Council’s hilarious ‘worst Zoom meeting ever’ say clerk’s actions were ‘without any formal footing’

• Clips from the infamous Zoom meeting went viral with millions of views online
• Cheshire East Council launched a probe after complaints about the meeting
• It concluded with no formal findings against any councillors and cost £85,716 
• Council published six reports, totalling 145 pages, which considered behaviour
• One said Jackie Weaver ‘was not acting in an official capacity at these meetings’

Jackie Weaver did not have the authority to remove participants from Handforth Parish Council’s hilarious ‘worst Zoom meeting ever’, an official council report has concluded.

In February 2021 clips from the infamous Zoom meeting went viral with millions of views online.

During the seven-minute edited highlights package of the December 2020 hearing, someone is heard exclaiming: ‘f*** off’ at the start, a toilet flushes and another person answers the front door as councillors from two rival factions struggled with the mute button. 

After receiving a series of complaints about the ill-tempered meeting, Cheshire East Council’s Audit and Governance Committee launched a probe into what happened. Earlier this month it concluded with no formal findings made against any councillor – yet still costing the authority £85,716. 

The council has now published six reports, totalling 145 pages, which considered behaviour before and during the meeting.

One report concluded Ms Weaver ‘was not acting in an official capacity at these meetings’, BBC News reported. 

Jackie Weaver (pictured) did not have the authority to remove participants from Handforth Parish Council’s hilarious ‘worst Zoom meeting ever’, an official council report has concluded 

In response, Ms Weaver, of the Cheshire Association of Local Councils who represent town and parish councils, said she did not remove the councillors from the meeting but moved them to the waiting room before the remaining councillors voted to remove them.

She said she welcomed the findings in the report but was ‘deeply saddened that it took so long and cost so much to get there’. 

The Audit and Governance Committee was investigating 21 formal complaints from meetings which occurred between 2018 and November 2020, which was before the viral zoom video.

It was decided all complaints should be probed by the same investigators but with six separate reports created.

Three members were found to potentially be in breach of the Members Code of Conduct and issued with determination notices by Cheshire East’s monitoring officer – but instead they all resigned.

The committee’s report said the resignations were part of several ‘complications which prolonged the process and increased the total cost’. 

A joint statement from the three former councillors said they did not recognise the findings of the report as being valid.   

The hour-long meeting – which actually took place in December 2020 but only went viral in February, got off to a rocky start after the chairman Cllr Brian Tolver challenged the legitimacy of the meeting 

Chaos ensued as councillor Aled Brewerton reacted to Mr Tolver’s expulsion by exclaiming: ‘She’s kicked him out.’ He then attempted to commandeer the meeting as vice-chairman before, also being booted off, shouting: ‘Read the standing orders – read them and understand them’ 

In February 2021, Ms Weaver became an Internet sensation after the Handforth Parish Council planning committee meeting, in Cheshire, went viral.

The parish council meetings had become so explosive Cheshire East Council official Jackie Weaver sat in to calm the waters.

The hour-long meeting – which actually took place in December 2020 but only went viral in February, got off to a rocky start after the chairman Cllr Brian Tolver challenged the legitimacy of the meeting.

It was being held due to complaints over who actually ran the council as aggrieved Mr Tolver had missed six months of meetings.

The meeting was described online as ‘British comedy gold’ and ‘like something out of the Thick of It’.

As Mr Tolver became heated, Ms Weaver warned him: ‘If you disrupt this meeting, I will have to remove you from it.’

The meeting was attended by several other councillors (clockwise from top left: Susan Moore, Barry Burkill, John Smith, and Cynthia Samson)

This prompted furious Mr Tolver to reply: ‘You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver! No authority at all!’

And chaos ensued as councillor Aled Brewerton reacted to Mr Tolver’s expulsion by exclaiming: ‘She’s kicked him out.’

He then attempted to commandeer the meeting as vice-chairman before, also being booted off, shouting: ‘Read the standing orders – read them and understand them.’

Jackie Weaver later admitted she was ‘surprised’ by her newfound fame.

She said: ‘Ninety nine per cent of council meetings are not like that. They’re often less exciting than we might hope they were.

‘Most of the time I’m trying to encourage people to get involved in parish councils to raise their profiles.

‘The plus side of this is that it’s certainly done that.’ 

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