Council meeting 'like a playground' amid 'nasty' debate

"Bickering" councillors have been accused of acting like "nasty" kids in a school playground after a long budget meeting.

Gloucester City Council's four-hour meeting on 20 January was meant to be discussing the area's spending for the next financial year.

Instead, councillors debated rent issues at an indoor market and if the government should ban the controversial herbicide glyphosate.

Councillor Tree Chambers-Dubus said: "We probably could have got this meeting done in a fraction of the time. It's ridiculous. It's like a playground."

She added: "A lot of what has been said, and the bickering, nastiness, quite frankly, is not actually going to have done any good this evening other than keep people sitting here."

Dozens of complaints are understood to have been submitted recently regarding councillors' behaviour and a special panel has been set up to deal with them, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Last May, former mayor Kathy Williams said in her outgoing speech that there was a bullying issue at the council.

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