Wixams Parish Council has a new chairman, but it has lost two councillors following a fractious council meeting.
On Tuesday (14 August), parish councillor Saqhib Ali was re-elected as the parish council’s chairman following the resignation of parish councillor Terry Christian.
Parish councillor Christian defeated parish councillor Ali in May’s election, but he resigned from the parish council last month.
Before the vote, parish councillor Ali told members that he had been a Wixams parish councillor since its inception.
“I’ve been involved with the newsletter, the Village Hall and as a resident, ” he said. “And the thing that I think I’d like to point out to everybody is we are only here for the community. If we are not here for the community, there’s a door over there.”
The other contender was parish councillor Barbara Matthews, who said she originally joined the parish council as she “wanted to get things done”.
Ward councillor Graeme Coombes (Conservative) asked both candidates: “Bearing in mind all the difficulties this parish council has been through, what do you think you can reasonably do to bring this parish council together to make it more functional?”
Parish councillor Ali said he would ask the monitoring officer if there was a way to hold an election.
While parish councillor Matthews replied: “I think we should go back to the report we were provided by the monitoring officer and work our way through it as that hasn’t been done.”
Parish councillor Ali was voted to be the new chair by eight votes to four.
Following the vote, two parish councillors (who both voted for the new chair) resigned.
Read: Wixams councillor told to resign in row over planning application response with “racist overtones”
Parish councillors Sam Mardell and Charlotte Day both said their decisions were due to irreparable differences with some other councillors.
Councillor Coombes asked both of them to reconsider their resignations.
“If we are to move things forward we need good people who are committed to the people of Wixams,” he said.
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
