Colchester Council meeting descends into chaos as man refuses to leave

Thursday evening’s full council meeting was only 20 minutes old when one speaker, Gordon Kerr, was asked to halt his speech midway through his three-minute timeslot.

Mr Kerr, who had started his speech as part of the ‘have your say’ session, opened by saying “the council is not a council”, before going on to claim the authority was a registered corporation.

He said: “You’re a registered corporation, just like UK government, just like parliament – they have no authority over the public.

“They’re the same as Tesco, the same as McDonalds – so when this body asks people to pay council tax, they have zero authority whatsoever, yet they harass people, and demand that money.

“And that money goes to where?

“That money goes to the consolidated fund, does what?

Meeting – a full council meeting was convened on Thursday evening by Lesley Scott-Boutell (Image: Newsquest)

“It buys weapons, it supports genocide, and events like that.”

Mr Kerr then had his microphone switched off by deputy mayor Lesley Scott-Boutell, who was chairing the meeting in the absence of Mayor John Jowers whilst he recovers from a hospital operation.

Both Mrs Scott Boutell and Tim Young said Mr Kerr’s speech was “vexatious, improper, scurrilous, and objectionable”, and security then escorted Mr Kerr back to his seat.

As they did so, councillor Jeremy Hagon made a point of order, insisting that Mr Kerr be allowed to finish his speech and remain in the council chamber.

Several members of the public who were sitting on the viewing balcony filmed the incident as it unfolded.

When Mrs Scott-Boutell then asked that Mr Kerr leave the chamber, he refused to do so, and the meeting was then adjourned, initially for ten minutes.

Late – the meeting lasted until 10pm, at which point only two councillors voted in favour of the meeting lasting another half hour (Image: Newsquest)

During that time, two members of the police entered the chamber and attempted to persuade Mr Kerr to leave the building.

One Conservative councillor told a colleague he would leave if Mr Kerr was forcibly ejected from the meeting.

When the meeting reconvened about 25 minutes later, Mrs Scott-Boutell suggested Mr Kerr put his questions forward in writing.

She said: “I would like to invite Mr Kerr to submit a written statement of observation for which the mayor would be very happy to submit a written response.”

Mr Kerr eventually left the meeting by about 8pm.