Campaign Against Charges and Cuts members banned from Fife Council meetings after birthday party stunt
A Fife Council meeting ended in chaos when disabled protesters held a birthday party in the public benches.
Party hats and cake for Campaign Against Charges and Cuts members Anne Martin and Rudi Vogels during the meeting.
- By Aileen Robertson
- Published in the Courier : 13.05.11
- Published online : 13.05.11 @ 12.53pm
Thursday's meeting was brought to a halt when the Campaign Against Charges and Cuts (CACC) group started singing happy birthday to member Anne Martin and produced a cake complete with battery-operated candles. They also donned sparkly hats and blew party tooters.
CACC leader Maureen Closs — who captured the moment on camera and sent the above photo to The Courier — shouted out, "Let them eat cake."
The group's Rudi Vogels added, "You should cut cakes, not services."
Provost Frances Melville described the protest as "disgraceful" and called the various party leaders forward for a discussion. As they were talking, CACC offered pieces of cake around and blew their tooters again.
At one stage, Ms Closs sang to newly-elected SNP MSP David Torrance to the tune of the Cliff Richard hit Congratulations.
Around 15 minutes after the meeting had been disrupted the provost, in an unprecedented move, announced the four CACC members present would be sent letters informing them they were banned from attending future council meetings.
The full council meeting was suspended after items that had to be agreed were passed without discussion, including the strategically important TAYplan.
It is not the first time CACC has interrupted council business. In February, the budget meeting was almost stopped when the group heckled administration leader Councillor Peter Grant.
Ironically, Thursday's protest was launched as independent councillor Andrew Rodger was highlighting the importance of baths and showers for elderly and disabled people who have been discharged from hospital.
After the meeting, Ms Closs said she regretted the timing of the protest meant Mr Rodger had been interrupted, but stood by CACC's actions.
She said, "The council isn't listening and we feel we have a job as disabled people, on behalf of other disabled people who are unable to go along to these meetings, to have a voice and remind people that we are human beings and we have needs."
Ms Closs added that disabled people would soon "be left with only crumbs as their services and benefits are cut."
Labour leader Councillor Alex Rowley said he had "a great deal of respect" for CACC's campaign work but said the provost had been right to ban them from future council debates.
"Normally I would not support people being excluded under such circumstances but we can't have a situation where people are simply deciding that they are going to come along with the purpose of stopping the meeting," he said.
"Democracy would not function at a local level if we allowed that to continue."
Mr Grant and deputy council leader Elizabeth Riches jointly issued the following statement saying, "We welcome the fact that leaders of all the political groups represented on Fife Council have given their wholehearted support to the decision by the provost to exclude four members of the
public from attending future meetings of Fife Council and its committees.
"Fife Council represents a very wide spectrum of political views and there will be times when we disagree strongly with one another, but we are determined that the democratic processes of the council should be allowed to go ahead without disruption from councillors or from members of the public.
"The four individuals who set out to disrupt today's council meeting have done so on numerous previous occasions. They have repeatedly been warned that their behaviour was unacceptable and they have refused to heed those warnings.
"They have refused to allow councillors to carry out the role we have been elected to fulfil. There is clearly no prospect that they can be relied on to conduct themselves in an acceptable manner in future and we believe the provost had no alternative but to exclude them from future meetings."
11.13pm - 13.05.2011 I want to be heard too - Glenrothes, UK Report This
It is clear that nobody's opinion but their own matters to this shower of wasters. Democracy belongs to everyone but they disrupt it. The fact that they sent the picture to the Courier proves how unaware how puerile and selfish their antics appear to everyone else.
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