Lights Out for Cllr Ernie Welch
Full Council Meeting, 16th Oct 2023
Following a catastrophic (and late) meeting from the “Finance Working Group”, which was interrupted by the still-later arrival of the remaining WSotE members that actually could be bothered to turn up, and contained almost nothing of interest to the public, The WTC Full Council meeting was held in Wharton Library on the 16th Oct 2023.
Nothing could have prepared Mayor Ernie Welch for the absolutely stunning speech delivered by Local resident Joanne Moorcroft during the Open Forum.
In her speech, Mrs Moorcroft drew attention to derogatory remarks made by Cllr Welch a year ago regarding the cost to the previous council of installing the Town's Christmas lights, and observed that the new Town Council have already agreed a tender with Walker Signs for this year's lights.
To the visible horror of Cllr Welch, Mrs Moorcroft went further, showing that Walker Signs is owned by Paul Walker, a long-time friend of Cllr Welch1). Due to this existing friendship, which can be seen to go back some years, Cllr Welch should have excused himself during the debate and subsequent voting - but he did not.
With no answers for Mrs Moorcroft, Cllr Welch started to visibly turn red, his legs trembling beneath the table. He muttered “thank you very much for your comments, Mrs Moorcroft.”, before shakily moving on to the next point on the agenda in a very soft voice. We look forward to hearing Cllr Welch's plans for the Christmas lights at the next WTC Council Meeting!
Things went from bad to worse for Cllr Welch, as Labour Cllr Nathan Pardoe eviscerated Cllr Welch's ill-thought-out plan to fund coach trips to the Christmas Markets in Chester and Manchester. Cllr Welch seemed so keen to fund these trips, that he was even ready to offer up his Mayor's allowance, before being reminded that the Mayor's allowance is (unsurprisingly) also council funds, and as such would still require Council approval.
Cllr Pardoe patiently explained to the Mayor that he cannot simply spend the town's money without the agreement of the Council.
By this point, Cllr Welch was reduced to a strange kind of “reverse-wormtongue” caricature, relying almost totally on Town Clerk Mark Bailey to relay his Mayoral utterances.
Cllr Luke Daniels was the next to face Nathan's ire, but without the promised update on grant opportunities and partnerships, a mumbled excuse that he “will have 'something' for the next meeting” was all he could find to reassure the public.
With no updates on the allotment project funding, Cllr Fletcher also found himself lost for words when asked by Cllr Pardoe about its status. Perhaps fortunately for Cllr Fletcher, he was able to agree that the £10,000 promised by the Town Council would still be available, even if the external funding bid fails.
Town Clerk Mark Bailey was obliged to remark that the Wharton allotment project had already been approved at a previous meeting, when Cllr Welch felt the need to attempt to call a vote to “get it done”.
A confused Cllr Graham Newton had a weak start, and appeared to have no information regarding the previous meeting, however he did seem to settle into the role a little, as time went by. Possibly the only WSotE candidate to actually attempt to scrutinise anything (Wharton allotment project grants), he was hampered by his fellow WSotE councillors lack of preparedness.
Cllr Fletcher spent most of the rest of the meeting proposing motions for the Mayor. We're not sure why, but we're glad someone did it, since neither Cllr Welch, nor the other WSotE councillors (who appeared to be too engrossed in their sweet-ass laptops to speak much) seemed to want to, for some reason.
Personally, We would have proposed a “bowel” motion to the Mayor - he certainly looked like he needed one.
The Town Clerk had to go to some lengths to explain to Cllr Welch that he can't simply start a bus service without costing, planning, etc.
Cllr Beveridge won the “Stingy Git” award, for his attempt to fund only a percentage of the Winsford Academy's grant application that would send underprivileged young people on trips to Kenya. He gave no reason why he felt the cause was not deserving of the full amount - yet this seemed to be an unpopular sentiment among his fellow WSotE candidates, who promptly voted against him.
With no handouts for the public, the meeting was a little hard to follow, but when it eventually moved on to Planning, the WSotE councillors were no more prepared, and effectively ignored all the applications - leading a baffled Cllr Pardoe to ask “What's the vote for? Is it a vote to no not comment on these?”
Lastly, we would like to congratulate Cllr Dave Moorcroft on his new appointment.