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[TonyGosling]

iBrancaster Parish Council Meeting
Date: 7th September 2021
(Reference: Vote of No Confidence)

Transcript from Audio Recording
(Relative Excerpts)
Stephen Bocking - SB:
Chris Cotton - CC:
Celia - C:
Bryony Bax - BB:
Bob Lawton – BL:
Rod Cooke – RC


Audio Transcript Commencement Times:
08:02

BB: Okay, we now move to the minutes from the Extraordinary Meeting held on the 9th of August 2021, and this was a meeting that took place here in the village hall – are there any questions about these minutes? - Yes, Mr Bocking?
SB: Me again. There you go, where are we… I and Councillor Cotton have received from the National Trust this statement: ‘Sailing Club you are correct to say that this is an error in the plan for the Sailing Club lease, we are going to look at removing this village green from the lease.’ Now…
BB: …Where are you reading from? I don’t understand where this is from?
SB: Never mind where it came from, it came from the National Trust…
BB: So, this is something that the National Trust have given you?
SB: All I’m saying is that we tried to explain, one or two of us, at that meeting – it was illegal – I told you at least three times, but nobody would listen.
BL: But you voted for it.
CC: No, we didn’t.
BB: The agreement was voted on at a meeting earlier this year and it was carried…
SB: It was voted… oh alright, carry on…
BB: …at that meeting. What we were discussing was the map that goes with the amendments we agreed, and were voted on.
SB: We didn’t. We agreed on that without knowing the full facts, if not we wouldn’t have agreed on it…
BB: Steven, I read the agreement out line by line deliberately
SB: We didn’t have a map at the time which showed…
BB: Deliberately …And then we said we would find a map that we could all agree on. We haven’t found that map yet.
SB: The National Trust needs to be… I’d like to propose – I’ll cut all the rest out…
BB: You can’t make a proposal, it’s not on the agenda.
SB: Oh, well that’ll come on later then, that’s okay…
BB: If you want to propose something Steven, you need to put it on the agenda.
****: If I might make a suggestion…
CC: Can I just interrupt a minute – those that want a seat, can you take a trolly and go round that way and collect a load of chairs, and bring them back that way?
(General noise.)
BB: Simon, you’ll need to...
Clerk: You are reading from an email from the National Trust, are you?
SB: Yes, yes.
Clerk: In response to that, which said that the yellow bit on the original map shouldn’t apply?
SB: They have been in touch with me stating that the whole thing was illegal, and that it was going to be removed. No disrespect to the sailing club, it was no use to them, it was of no use to us, and it was of no use to the National Trust. If we had left it – which some people wanted to do, (push, push, push), that would have gone through for another generation to sort matters out - and all I’m trying to do, and one or two others, is to get things on the legal basis, and that’s all I’m doing.
Clerk: With respect Steven, I had also been engaged in that…
SB: Oh good…
Clerk: Because once I saw it, I thought it was a bit odd, and I addressed it – I think I had a phone meeting with Victoria about it…
SB: …Oh good. I think the whole thing should be put on hold until…
BB: …Steven, the amend – the agreement with the National Trust I read line-by-line very carefully at a meeting and we all voted on it and approved it. What we haven’t approved, is the map that is attached to that, and that is what we are trying to approve. And we did not approve the map at the last meeting and it is up for discussion again today. What we are thinking about now are the minutes from the meeting held on the 9th of August. Celia.
C: I’m going back to the original meeting on Brancaster playing field, I approved it subject to the map – being compatible with the map – but not, ‘I agreed to it, full-stop’, and the map is a separate item, they had to be together.
BB: Yes, exactly. We have to agree the map…
C: Right, well, that last paragraph does not ring true…
BB: Exactly. Exactly. Exactly.
C: And therefore, the National Trust must be in agreement that that paragraph has got to be removed…
BB: Absolutely. And that is what we have to get to later in this meeting. But first of all, we have got to approve the minutes of the last meeting on the 9th of August.
C: Well, we’re not though, because in fact it ended in disarray and you stopped the meeting because we were not going to get to an agreement.
BB: Right.
C: And Jeremy produced a map - which I still don’t think is right. But it’s certainly better than the previous…
BB: Right. Exactly.
****: Can I just make a point of form, because simply the National Trust should be communicating through the Clerk, not individual Councillors…
BB: …I agree…
****: …and therefore, this email which Steven has received, is available to us all to read and digest, and consider. We can’t have it just bought up at a meeting – ‘by the way, I had an email…’ – you should have forwarded directly to the Clerk immediately…
SB: …It was sent to me personally Tom, and that’s why…
BB: You cannot negotiate personal issues by yourself as a Council member Steven…
SB: I was not trying to negotiate anything. All I was trying to was find the truth.
****: The National Trust is in the wrong.
SB: Yes.
****: They should have sent it to Simon.
SB: Yes. I totally agree.
BB: Alright, we have got agreement on that. We now need to get to the minutes of the 9th of August. Do I have a Proposer? Bob Lawton. Do I have a Seconder? Thank you very much Richard. Can we vote on approving the minutes of the 9th of August? All those in favour raise your hands. All those against, raise your hands. Any abstainers… Are you abstaining Chris?
SB: Are you abstaining, or against?
CC: I’ll vote against them, sorry.
BB: That’s okay. This is what democracy is about Chris. Are there matters arising from those? We know the map is – because we’re going to discuss that later – are there any other matters arising from those minutes? Alright, okay, Chairperson’s report: First of all, just really, thanks to so many of you for coming tonight, because it’s really great that we have so many people participating in the Parish Council meetings…. The Saxon Field car park was up and running, thank you to the volunteers, particularly Amy, Bell and Ros, who did such a great job, thank you to Councillor De-Winter, for basically donating the land, and for everyone who came and volunteered for it. It was a great success, and it was a real example of how we can come together as a community, and we all worked hard, and the first day there were 56 cars there, and people gave donations and it was a really big success, so thank you to everyone who participated. It’s still going to be open this weekend I believe, and we will hear from the ladies later in the meeting. We still don’t have any news yet on the permanent car parking solutions, but we have proven that an overflow car park does work. Car Park passes procedure – we are going to review that, and then we will work on some guidelines that we will get together for the next meeting. Our external auditors have received an objection to our Agar form, questioning the right of Brancaster Parish Council to receive money from the car park. This was filed by an elector of the parish, known as The Objector, who has nominated Rod Cooke, Secretary of SHADCRA, as their representative. These objections will cost the Brancaster Parish Council, and therefore you as residents, £350 per hour for our external auditor to deal with. A vexatious Freedom Of Information request from Mr Cooke on behalf of SHADCRA was refused by the Brancaster Parish Council. I have spoken to the possible Legal Representatives, and as you know, £10,000 in funds have been ringfenced to fight any legal challenge. We are beginning the initial enquiries to protect Brancaster Parish Council and its residents from the continued onslaught by SHADCRA, this advice will come at £355 per hour. We will be discussing possible engagement of Lawyers in a private session after this meeting, (of the private session of the council). Simon Bower and I attended two online meetings, on the 20th of August and the 25th of August to discuss the unlawful campout which took place over the bank holiday weekend. These meetings were chaired by myself, and attended by the golf club, the police, the National Trust, and the first was attended by James Wild, the MP, Natural England sent their apologies on both occasions. Both meetings were about planning for safety issues that might have arisen during the protest. Fortunately, the event went ahead without incident. I’ve had two interesting pieces of correspondence this month, one was an email chain forwarded, I can only think by mistake, from the SHADCRA Executive Committee, the other was sent anonymously to me personally, and contained documents relating to the planning of the unlawful campout – which I immediately sent to the police. On another topic, please see our Facebook page – we have put up ways to help locally with the Afghan Rescue Crisis…>>


01:20:15

BB: The next item is to consider approving the map for the agreement with the National Trust, and subsequent wording changes, which was what we were talking about earlier in the evening. So, the map – I hope every Councillor has the map in front of them now. It’s the map of the village greens, and this is a map that we are proposing goes with the agreement with the National Trust, and it is only this map that is allowed to be with that agreement, there’s no other map to be considered, only this map as part of that agreement.
CC: I’d also like to point out that this map is the definitive map from County Hall, and no other map is actually legal, regardless of what people might say.
CC: It’s just a bigger version of what you’ve got…
BB: Right, okay…
CC: …which you all have.
BB: So, for the public, if you looked on the website, it shows the village greens that around the hard, down here.
****: So, the roads are not part of the village green?
CC: Yes, they are.
C: They are.
****: So, they’ve been transferred away from it?
****: Only the surface.
CC: It’s one of those silly anomalies, if you go back far enough, the main road going down to the hard, if you like, was a track. At some time in the early 1900s, I should imagine, that was tarmacked over, and it’s been like that ever since, but there is an actual ruling whereby a village green, or a road going over a village green, can be a village green.
****: I thought so.
CC: Yes, so you are correct.
****: But it’s not mapped as such on this map?
CC: No. It is not on there as such, but to save an argument, the whole lot is ‘village green’.
****: And I’d agree with that.
CC: And they’ve put that, and they actually put - there was a track that went down there obviously towards the hard that has turned to tarmac, and the left hand one has remained a track over the Common, which is Common Land.
****: Yes, and I don’t disagree with what you say.
CC: Which is what you were trying to get to last time.
****: I think fundamentally we are all in agreement, so…
Clerk: Can I ask for clarification? Who actually maintains the roads – is it Highways?
****: Highways maintain the…
Clerk: The map is intended for the agreement as to who maintains what, if Highways are doing it, then that...
CC: Right, Highways maintain the tarmac road, right, the gravel track is maintained by question mark, the National Trust I assume, because they are the alleged owners.
SB: And through agreement with the Parish Council. This is was what I was arguing about. Councillor Thomson bought all that up about roads and all the rest, and nobody would listen to him.
****: Can I ask, is there a triangular bit at the entrance to this? I don’t think there is, I think it’s a single track?
CC: Ah, now then… Go back far enough to when Reggie Kendell was there, right,
****: The butcher…
CC: …the left-hand side, you went down the steps, along a bit of tarmac, and into his door to get your meat. That has since been grassed over.
C: But it was never that triangle…
****: No, but it does create a triangle…
CC: It does create a triangle which isn’t there now.
****: Convenient access to…
CC: So, basically, what you can do is ignore that triangle where that little piece of road is. It’s now grassed over so the triangle is gone. (Basically, it reverted back to village green.)
****: And is the building – the National Trust building – on Common land as well?
CC: What, the Dial House?
****: Yes.
****: It’s on the village green, not Common Land.
SB: It’s village green.
****: Yes, it’s on the Common Land, but is it on the village green?
****: No…
CC: Possibly, if you go back far enough, possibly yes.
BB: Well, it’s not on the village green on this map.
CC: And we’re not going to argue about that - we are talking about the present bits.
BB: Okay, so, with this map, the wording needs to be changed in the agreement with the National Trust, and it needs to be changed from: ‘this agreement covers the area in red and gaps next to the red other than Highways etc., but does not include the yellow strip on the East side, which is the Eastern sailing club’. We need to get rid of that.
CC: We need to get rid of all that.
BB: And we need to put in: ‘This agreement covers village greens 47 and 63, as outlined on the attached map.’
CC: 65?
Clerk: It makes no comment about who owns, or anything like that, it’s simply who is actually maintaining it, for the purposes of the agreement.
CC: Yes, for the purpose of the agreement, Highways maintained the tarmac road, and the gravel track is maintained by the Parish Council, the National Trust, whatever.
****: You need to add VG65 to the…
BB: …Yes, I was just looking at that, VG65 needs to be added.
****: VG65, is that 63.
BB: Oh, is that a bad 3?
CC: It’s a bad 3.
BB: It’s a bad 3.
CC: That is 63. There are only two village greens down there, 47 and 63.
****: Alright.
Clerk: And it is meticulous.
BB: Alright, so, I’m going to propose…
SB: …Before you propose anything lady Chairman, this business of this… let me just get something straight for the members of the parish here, this piece on the East side which was allegedly leased out to the sailing club, was totally illegal. Why it was… well, there’s no point in going back in history – but the fact of it was, the Parish Council had been cutting it for decades, the sailing club couldn’t use it, and the whole thing was a complete mess. All we’ve been trying to do is to get things onto a legal footing.
BB: Right.
SB: And now, from what I’ve been told from the National Trust, they’re now going to sort that out, for the benefit of the parish, and the sailing club, and the parishioners, so we’ve got a level playing field…
****: Steven, you need to provide the email to the Parish Council.
SB: Well, I can do…
****: You should have done it before the meeting…
SB: …I try to be straight and it was sent personally…
****: …Well, you should have…
BB: Alright, okay, so what we are going to do - I am going to make a proposal that the wording needs to be changed as listed here on the agenda, and we are going to attach this map to the agreement with the National Trust.
CC: Subject to a written statement from the National Trust to say that they will get rid of the lease.
BB: No. That’s not part of this. That is not what’s on the agenda.
SB: Let’s just get around the table with the National Trust and sort this out finally once and for all, instead of all this rubbish.
BB: What I would like to take a vote on…
SB: …you can keep your vote on…
BB: Steven, I’d ask for some respect here
SB: Wheer…
BB: What I – I’d like to get some respect please. What I’d like to vote on… Bob, did you need to say something?
BL: No.
BB: Okay, what I’d like to vote on, is that this map is attached to the agreement with the National Trust, as agreed at the previous meeting with the wording changed, to say that this agreement covers village greens 47 and 63. Do I have a seconder?
****: Can we actually explain why to the public, exactly why this has been going on?
BB: It would have to be very brief. Stiffi, I don’t know that at this point we can take public debate on this.
S: It is quite significant.
BB: Let me just ask the clerk. Are we?
Clerk: It is up to you and the councillors.
BB: Stiffi, I will allow you two minutes.
S: Could you explain to me what date that map is?
CC: 1906.
S: Has it got an amendment on that map, for when they changed the direction of the road coming into Staithe, and made a compulsory purchase order for fourteen feet of the village green in 1963 for the road widening scheme, that went past Toms’ Granary originally, along Reggie Kendell’s wall, they turned around and took 14 feet of that that was the village green under the compulsory purchase order, thirty feet of my father’s apple orchard that is now sea grass on the opposite side of the road, and Lester ****, God rest his soul, his front garden - have they amended that map and put that in – because public Highway – which is why the council turned around and maintained the road that goes down to the sailing club flat, and put a bloody great ramp in there, and kerb stones down as far as the boundary of the old Victory pub that was Dower/Dial?? House.
BB: Hmm…
S: Have they amended that map to show that they have taken fourteen feet of the village green?
CC: Stiffi, that is the 1906 definitive map from County Hall.
Clerk: That is the legal basis of it being a Common.
CC: The village green.
Clerk: Sorry, apologies yes, for it being that status of land, and it’s the only one that we can accept in terms of any legal…
CC: Correct.
****: I think, if I - members of the public, what’s happened is that the previous agreement we had with the National Trust, which was done in 19-something… basically need updating. So, the National Trust and the Parish Council together always managed the village green, and we had to update it because it was a muddle, out of date, and various things like that, and this is what we are going through now. We have made a lot of progress, we are just tying up the loose ends of this map, which is a definitive map from County Hall.
S: Well from what I can see of that, that front green triangle which is the village green 47, half of that has been taken in as public highway now, I’d like to point that out to the meeting. So, you’re are actually fighting over a village green that’s actually under about four feet of tarmac.
CC: Well, we can only go by what that is. Not…
S: …Unless that’s got accurate measurements on it
Clerk: Which none of these actually do.
S: You’re actually contesting whether you own a village green that isn’t actually there anymore.
Clerk: The width to the mile…
S: So, you’re actually contesting something you haven’t actually got.
BB: Thank you very much for your input.
S: With all due respect…
BB: No, thank you very much, we appreciate it.
****: Could we vote accept this map now, and ask the County Council to update their definitive maps please?
CC: They can’t – that is their definitive map.
****: Yes, well they need to update it to what it is now – there’s no good in having a definitive map that is 100 years old – which doesn’t represent the definitive area.
Clerk: Could I defer and ask Andrew to investigate? Because my view is that they won’t do anything. There will need to be a public enquiry, and probably High Court involved as well…
****: Alright.
SB: Miss Chairperson, if I could come in on this?
BB: Yes.
SB: Do we really need to split all these hairs over trying to get something straight for everybody? All we need to do is to work together, between us, the National Trust, the sailing club, and the Borough Council if you like, get around the table and thrash something out, to cut out all this rubbish, and the stuff which is illegal, because it is illegal.
BB: I agree, and that is what we are trying to do is to get this agreement signed and updated, and we’ve been going past this, round and round, so I am going to propose that we approve this map to be the definitive map for the new agreement between the Brancaster Parish Council and the National Trust, with the amended wording as I have read out, twice so far.
****: And I second it.
BB: All those in favour for accepting this map with the wording change, please vote.
Clerk: Six.
BB: Those against.
SB: Well, I’m against, until we have a round the table talk.
BB: So, you’re against Steven. Chris?
CC: I’m against, because I want to see the paperwork from the National Trust, and then I will agree to it.
BB: Okay, and Celia?
C: I’m concerned that we are agreeing to it without actually having a final draft of the agreement to look at.
BB: Alright, okay, the motion is passed.
Clerk: So, six-three, with three objections.
CC: Three against.

Running straight into:
01:34:05

BB: Alright, okay, so, Council matters - going to make a statement – To Simon Bower, 1st September: We the undersigned councillors are outraged and saddened at the participation of fellow councillors Stephen Bocking and Chris Cotton in the planning of an unlawful campout protest, which took place in Brancaster over the bank holiday weekend. The Police have documentary evidence that they were part of the organising team. In our Standing Orders, 3B, Councillors commit to protect, enhance, and promote, the environment of the area of the Parish Council, and to promote the collective interests and wellbeing of all the residents of the parish of Brancaster. On the advice of M.E.L. (???) we are enacting standing order 16A.1X, and we call for a vote of No Confidence in both Stephen Bocking and Chris Cotton, and if it is carried, ask for consideration that their membership on council groups be withdrawn. And that was signed by Bryony Bax, Tom De-Winter, John Wareham, Bob Lawton, Jeremy Thompson, Richard Roberts, and Gary Bocking. (I’d like to also say that there was an email received from John Wareham, but we have no principal for this.)
Chris and Steven, it gives me absolutely no pleasure at all to do this.
SB: Well, you’re the one who’s doing it – you’re the one who started it.
BB: So, I would like to give you both three minutes...
SB: I will, and I was going to cut a lot of this out, but I’ll read the whole thing now, since, yeah…
C: When they have both spoken, can I say a short word?
BB: Yes…
SB: When this came about, I started putting together evidence in my defence. But then I thought, in defence of what? It’s a Civil Matter – what part of this doesn’t our chairperson understand? When we first attended the parish council, together, she said to me ‘Steven, you must look on me like Switzerland, neutral’ - Neutral Switzerland sent 30,000 Jews back from their borders to die in concentration camps, and now we have this neutral person, trying to get two councillors off the Parish Council for what - standing up for the freehold property rights, or just standing up to the Golf Club, for a fair deal for the Common Rightsholders, and the parishes, historical long-standing claim to the ownership of Marsh Common? All the Royal West Norfolk needs to do, is to produce the Deeds, but instead, ordinary people receive Solicitors letters, threatening, with dire consequences. Now to this demonstration: This group, The Land Is Ours, came here to support Common Rightsholders claims. They travelled from all corners of England, at their own expense, they were all educated, peaceful people, and all had jobs. Ask yourself the question, who started these rumours about blockading the car park entrance, and thousands of protestors? Ask yourself the question, was this chairperson acting out of concern for the parish of Brancaster, or concern for the Royal West Norfolk Golf Club? I did notice there was not the same concern over the chaos at Staithe harbour over the same weekend. I had this note put through my door - AMBIT (???) - with contact on the back for the Eastern Daily Press/EDP journalist on the back of it – was this an attempt to come between man and wife? Remember, Brancaster Commons Committee is virtually bankrupt, and yet thousands of pounds are taken off these Commons every year for what? Certainly not for Commons management. This small local problem seems to encapsulate the world’s problems, which is fuelled by man’s greed and drinks parties. And that’s my statement.
BB: Thank you very much Steven.
SB: Yeah, thank you.
BB: Chris, would you like to make your statement please?
CC: I agree with what Steven said, plus, as the Parish Council gave up all claims to ownership in the past, the PC had no involvement in this protest. It’s a Civil matter, and nothing to do with the Parish at all. There was no email to say that there was going to be a Zoom meeting, so on whose authority did the PC get to hold a Zoom meeting? (Because we weren’t informed, and I don’t think anyone else was as well.) Speaking to Paula Gilhoulie(?) – she’s the Police liaison person for protests and all the rest of it – I asked her about the Zoom meeting and, contrary to popular belief, the Police did not organise a Zoom meeting, because under their law, they can’t use their computers for Zoom meetings. So, Paula said she had to go out and find a non-Police computer to hook into the Zoom meeting that was being organised. So therefore, the Parish council set up the Zoom meeting, contrary to popular beliefs which said: ‘Simon Barr (??) and Bryony Bax attended the meeting out of safety concerns for the parish caused by illegal camping’. I suggest they both get down there every night between now and February the 20th, because there will be wildfowlers down there, jab around the marsh at night time.’
BB: Where - who was – whose email...?
SB: Just let him finish…
CC: ‘It was hosted on the Police teams meeting and attended by representatives’ – it wasn’t hosted on the Police team because they’re not allowed to – they can’t use PC computers for Zoom meetings by Parish Council and all the rest of it. ‘The four individuals who are organising this protest have been identified, and documentary evidence of this is in the possession of the Police. Unfortunately, two of these individuals are Parish Councillors.’ I would like to see the evidence of where there is documentary evidence that we helped organise it – because we didn’t. The police confirmed we didn’t. Tony Gosling confirmed we didn’t. So, who is right?
**TD-W(??): Who is Tony Gosling?
CC: He organised the part with TLIO. According to…where is it?... Last week, I rang Paula Gilhoulie(?) and I got an email from her to say: ‘It was lovely to chat with you, and as promised, this email will forward my contact with mobile’… etc… ‘As we discussed on the phone about the protest camp, I attended via Zoom, and in attendance with, as Police Protest Liaison Officer, although in this case it was held on Private Land, and my interest was only monitoring any tension. I am not aware of any individual or organisation requesting the meeting, but there were representatives of the Golf Club and other people. As regards the documentary evidence, according to the Police, the only documentary evidence they have got, is an anonymous letter that went in to say there was going to be a protest down on the car park.’ I asked her if I could have a copy of it and she said no - unless you want to ***** and then that’s your property. Basically, this has nothing at all to do with the Parish Council. The meeting was not organised, or helped to be organised, or anything else, by myself and Mr Bocking. We didn’t know until at least about three days before the meeting was actually started. So, where all this rubbish has actually come from, I can only guess it is certain people ranting and raving at drinks parties and other places, and making some storm out of nothing whatsoever.
BB: Alright. Thank you very much Councillor Cotton.
SB: May I be able to come back on this… (interrupted by BB)
BB: No, you’ve had your three minutes… I am going to go to Celia…
C: Thank you for letting me have a quick word. I didn’t know what I was sitting on looking across the fence, or what you were going to say, but I do think that possibly there was a lot of misinformation flying about. I think *** it’s uses. Would you not, as chairman, withdraw this, so that it can be properly discussed, quietly, and if in the future you need to reprimand them or whatever you want to do, going forward again, when the matter is clear. It’s not clear at the moment. You say one thing, they say another thing – ooh – lots of rules flying about, and there’s one thing that nobody’s mentioned, this Parish Council owns A Common Right. We are Common Rights Holders! (*** and***???) So, I’m respectfully asking you Bryony, in the case of being democratic, that you withdraw this, these two allegations, and we can go forward as a team to work for the benefit of the whole community, not for any individual Councillors. That’s all I’m asking…. Think about it please.
BB: Thank you very much Celia. I have taken in what you have said, but I am still going to call for a vote.
SB: Can I have another say before we vote – or would you rather have me gagged?
BB: I don’t want to have you gagged at all Steven.
SB: Okay. We talked about the car park, we’re talking about Common Land, right? We have this one from the National Trust: ‘I am writing to advise SHADCRA, all members, that the Brancaster Manor is the property of the National Trust. The Royal West Norfolk Golf Club ‘the golf club’ are the Legal Registered owners of the car park.’ Now, how many owners is there? I think it belongs to the village – and think that the village should be having 80% or 60% of that money. A few years ago, I was shouted down at a Parish Council meeting because I wanted 33.3% for all of us, which I considered might be fair. And what happened, nothing. We get these *(shows PC a parking notice.) - How many people have been on that car park and been fined £50 for parking a car – because they can’t do it, that’s totally illegal – let them do it!
BB: Steven, this is about your participation in the unlawful encampment…
SB: Of course, yes it would be…
CC: Which we didn’t do - or have anything to do with! - Prove it!
SB: Go away.
BB: I would like to consider a Motion of No Confidence in Steven Bocking, those in favour of a Vote of No Confidence in Steven Bocking please raise your hand.
SB: Can I just come in on that? How many of you lot are Golf Club Members?
Clerk: I have to say… Sorry…
SB: You know, you work for them…
Clerk: I try to keep out of this – for obvious reasons – once the vote has been called, we have to vote…
SB: Nervously…
Clerk: I don’t want to go through conversations we had, and I don’t want to have to issue you with…
**??: I have nothing to do with the Golf Club, by the way.
SB: Don’t you?
**??: No.
SB: So why are you voting against us?
BB: Right, now we’re coming to the next… now I’d like to consider a Motion of No Confidence in Councillor…
Clerk: Sorry… We need to vote against that motion…
BB: Oh, sorry, we need to vote Against that Motion. All those who would like to vote against a Vote of No Confidence in Steven Bocking, please raise their hand. Any abstainers?
**??: Sorry, I thought we were doing the same again… Sorry…
BB: Alright, we will start again, because actually I would like this to be a named vote. Okay, we’re considering a Motion of No Confidence in Councillor Steven Bocking, all those in favour of the Vote of No Confidence, please raise your hand.
**??: Is it Seconded?
Clerk: It is Seconded by Bob Lawton, that was in an email.
BB: All those Against the Motion, please raise their hand. Any Abstentions, please raise their hand. Motion Passed.
Clerk: Steven hasn’t voted - I’ll have to count you as an Abstention.
SB: You want me to vote? What a farce! Put down whatever you like!
(General hubbub.)
Clerk: Steven, I have to put down – I have to record your vote – your vote has been requested…
SB: You put down whatever you like mate because I don’t … I can’t be bothered!
BB: I would like to Consider a Vote of No Confidence in Councillor Chris Cotton, all those in favour of the Motion, please raise your hand. All those against the Motion, please raise your hand. Any Abstentions? That’s passed. As those are passed, we need now to consider the Membership of Council Groups by the above Councillors… Just so the public knows, there is no way that somebody could be asked to leave the Parish Council, that’s not democratic. But what we can do once those votes have been passed is to consider the Membership of those Councillors in Public Groups, which are Groups representing the Council. So, we’ll just go through this… Stephen Bocking is on the Smith Trust, and the Barrow Common Committee - Barrow Common Management Committee - so those are the two we will have to consider for him. And for Chris, we’ve got the Detached Cemetery Committee and again, the Barrow Common Management Committee, and the Brancaster Sports Club. So…
CC: …Before you say anything else, what difference does it make – because you have a Vote of No Confidence in me – what difference does that make with me organising or doing anything to do with the Detached Cemetery? What difference is that going to make to me having anything to do with Highways and stuff like that? Absolutely nothing! It makes no difference at all. But if we are voted off all those,
SB: You do it.
CC: Somebody’s going to have to do an awful lot of work – because I ain’t doing it!
SB: And neither am I.
CC: Plus, the fact there’s 175 c******* that have got to be picked up and taken back to King’s Lynn at some stage…
BB: I know, I know, I know Chris, I know - and as I said before, this gives me absolutely no pleasure – because you are a valued member of the Council…
CC: Well don’t do it! You know...
BB: …But your participation in this illegal action…
SB: …You say to me about respect – respect is earned – and you ain’t earned anything - and I’ll tell you now, I’d take out a Vote of No Confidence over you as Chairman but that isn’t worth doing, because it don’t mean nothing…
BB: … Steven… Steven, if you’d like to do that, that is your democratic right…
SB: What do you know about democratic rights…
CC: The other thing you don’t do is do something like this in public….
SB: Well, I don’t mind – I’ve got nothing to hide. My conscience is clear, I can look in the mirror and I’m ok…
BB: Alright, we need to move the agenda forward…
SB: You move what you like…
BB: Okay, thank you. Consider…
SB: …Just remember it’s all the members of the Golf Club who are voting all this…
BB: Consider… Consider members…
SB: …And I will add something else while we’re about it… Members of the village Golf Club, right, that was done in 1902, and without it, there wouldn’t be a village Golf Club if it hadn’t been for Common Right and Common Land – remember that one…
BB: …Alright, we need to consider membership of the Council Groups, and so, for Steven Bocking, that’s the Smith Trust, and the Barrow Common Management Committee, and for Chris, it’s the Sports Club, and the Cemetery, and the Barrow Common Management Committee – just so we’re clear, it’s not the Barrow Common Hard, it’s the one up the hill... So, consider the membership of the Council groups by the Councillors, does anyone have anything they would like to say about that?
**??: Well as I live next to the Barrow Common – I’ll do the Barrow Common…
C: Conflict of Interest.
SB: Conflict of Interest.
BB: I agree with Celia Tom, I think that is - I would rather – we need to vote on these memberships, and then we can figure it out who’s going to do them, who is going to replace them. So, I proposed that Chris Cotton is off the Cemetery, the Sports Club, and Barrow Common, and that Steven Bocking is off the Smith Trust, and the Barrow Common Management Committee. That’s the Proposal - do I have a Seconder? Bob Lawton. All those in favour of removing of those two Councillors from those committees, need to raise your hand. All those against. Thank you very much for that vote. Alright, so now we have to consider the Smith Trust.
SB: Can I just interrupt you Lady Chairman, before we go any further, just as a matter of urgency, the Smiths Trust have got a Garden Party on the 9th
BB: Yup…
SB: Which some of us here, worked hard to get two new houses for the village…
BB: Well, I think you should go as you…
SB: – and maybe you’ll go in my place…
BB: Well, I’ve actually been invited Steven…
SB: …Oh, have you?
BB: Yes, but I think you should go because you’ve been working with them for the last few years, so I think it is appropriate that you should go.
CC: Not if he’s been voted off he can’t
SB: Not if I’ve been voted off, thank you very much…
BB: It’s not a meeting, it’s a Garden Party…
SB: …I don’t care…. I don’t care - you stick it.
BB: Alright, we are now going to correspondence and requests, to note any correspondence by the Clerk?
Clerk: Nothing that hasn’t been sent on.
BB: Okay. AOB and agenda requests – please, if you would like something on the agenda for next time, this is your chance…
SB: What’s this…?
CC: It’s what’s on the agenda for next time.
SB: Any other business…
BB: Hang on a minute…
BL: Speeding
BB: Speeding, okay…
BL: Can we have police presence in the villages to catch some of these idiots that are still speeding?
BB: Okay
**??: Perhaps I could add on to that… I got caught for speeding a number of years ago, believe it or not, in **** - and I was chatting to the policeman as he was filling in his form, and he said, the reason why I am doing this is because the Parish Council have been complaining about speeding through the village **** my point is that, basically, if the Parish Council complain sufficient enough, they will take notice.
BB: Okay, so let’s have it on the agenda.
Clerk: May I suggest that, rather than putting it on the agenda and waiting a month, I simply write and ask them to come along…

(Various comments about speeding etc…)

01:56:11
BB: Any other further agenda requests?
(Dianna Walton instructed to await Public Meeting once the agenda finished.)
SB: I’ve got plenty, yeah.
BB: Okay.
SB: Clarification as to why the car park money is now to be received as a Donation, rather than a share, as it has been for decades.
BB: So, is that an agenda item?
SB: Yeah. Stick it on the agenda.
BB: Steven?
SB: All my requests to see the car park’s accounts have been ignored – at least eight times – I’d like to know why? Will giving up our historical land claim to ownership of Marsh Common, **be open hour? Why didn’t our chair meet the police over concern for safety for Staithe Harbour? (It was absolute chaos over that weekend.)
BB: We have been discussing that with the National Trust…
SB: Oh ‘we’ have, have we? Is that the Council or you?
BB: The Council.
SB: Well, that’s news to me - I haven’t seen anything.
BB: Alright – anything else?
SB: Yeah!
BB: Alright, Public Questions and Comments. This is the Public Session now, and we’ve got twenty minutes for this, but we have three minutes for each person.
C: Hedges! Hedges!
BB: I wondered whether you were going to bring that up!
C: Ahh, I’m at 50%! – You caught me on the back foot – are you going to put that on the agenda?
BB: …On the agenda, alright!
C: Oh good, right time of year!
BB: So, if you would like to speak in this public session, please raise your hand. Brian Everett and Rod Cooke. Brian, would you like to go first?
BE: Yes, now, I’ve been 54 years doing Commons, and on the Parish Council for over twenty years - one thing or another – and I have never witnessed anything like I have witnessed tonight. It was absolutely heart-breaking. It is sheer evil in my opinion, what’s happened. Everybody is allowed their opinion of what they can do, and it shouldn’t be taken personally. And as regards to the Ownership and all the rest of it, I’ll just go ever so quickly: King John gave the Earl of Ramsay the Manor of Brancaster which consisted of five hundred- and fifty-acres, and that’s to the East of the village green. Along came ***** Berkley, he put a Private Act through Parliament, which cost a lot of money at the time, and in that, he gave to the village 618 acres of salt marsh Common. He also, as I’ve just said, gave 550 acres to the Manor – that’s the only ground the Manor owned. In 1765 this Act went through. In 1841 the Tithe Award came along, this verified exactly what had been recorded earlier. It was 6% of Tithe Awards in England that was actually verified by all the landowners – so it’s a very rare document. And in that again it reinforces that The Parish of Brancaster owns six hundred and eighteen acres of Salt Marsh Common. This Common included the Golf Club, and it started at the border of Titchwell with Brancaster, came through along to the Green along the South side, it went from the Green over to the line back by the first dune ridge. This is all documented and you can’t get away from it. In the Tithe Award, it quite plainly says it was given to the Village of Brancaster – given to the village of Brancaster – and all the landowners in this village agreed to that. So that’s a Legal Document, you can’t get away from it. Now, the other side, what I would like to say to the Parish Council is: I can give you quoted Court Cases to back what I am saying, and the Open Spaces Society was always involving them, but the prime factor of the Parish Council is to look after the assets of the village, and that asset is 618 acres of land. Now, there’s been a case on record, where a Parish Council is doing very much similar to what I think our Parish Council is doing, and that’s letting this land go. The Commoners and the landowner took them to Court – took the Parish Council – to Court. It went to High Court, and High Court ruled that the Parish Council had given away the land that actually belonged to the village, and they were in fear of losing their property, their homes. Thank goodness there was an Out of Court Settlement – I can’t tell you what that was because it was Out of Court.
BB: Thank you Brian, you’ve had your three minutes – and thank you very much indeed because I know that you have done a lot of research…
BE: It was a long subject for three minutes ma’am!
SB: …Well done mate, well done…
BB: Yes, thank you very much…. Thank you. Rod Cooke, would you like to speak?
RC: Yes please. I’ll just start by carrying-on from where Brian has stopped. We put together a – (I’m Secretary, by the way, of the Scolt Head & District Common Rights Holders Association) – we put together, under Brian’s leadership and using Brian’s archive, this folder, which, basically, it lays out the history of Brancaster Common and the ownership issues relating to that so it’s all in there. Brian’s got the archive, we copied from his archive, and we put it together for the Planning Inspectorate Enquiry, which, due to some protocol or other, we weren’t allowed to present. But that is there – the Parish Council can have a copy of that any time to support their claim to those acreage that Brian mentioned just now. I’ve got it on the computer, I can send it to your Clerk, if necessary, by email or whatever you want, and he can print it off or whatever. But there you are, that is there for the Parish Council to use if you wish…
BB: Thank you…
RC: …I’d like to just pick up on what your Clerk said earlier, he talked of a vexatious Freedom of Information Request. I have never had any correspondence from your Council to say that anything I’ve sent on behalf of the Association has been vexatious. What I did get from your Clerk was that he was very busy and wasn’t able to get to the matters of information that I was asking for. I left that, and I spoke to the Committee, they have agreed that could be left for the time being. What has happened – over the last two years at least – is that your Parish Council have refused to acknowledge the Association. You have refused to sit down with Scolt Head & District Commoners, as an Association, because I was asked to have a Zoom meeting with the Chair and one of the Councillors, which turned out to be a matter of trying to ‘knock Rod Cooke’. I repeated then, I am Secretary for the Association, I do what the Association asks me to do. Now, one or two other points, just to say, we talked about the ‘unlawful’ encampment. Two-thirds of that car park are unlawful, shouldn’t be on the ***contract. The original car park – which was approved by the District Council, was for a car park a third of that size. The Common has been encroached upon by two-thirds more. You talked about - as if this was a slant to use my name **** for £350 per hour, for this that or the other. I speak for the Association I don’t hide anything that the Association doesn’t want me to, so I speak for the Association and I say that you took, as a Parish Council, £37,000 last year from that Common – nothing to be spent back on the Common, £37,000 to subsidise your rates….
BB: Thank you very much Rod, your three minutes are over…
RC: …The Common Rightsholders own their Common Rights, they are private property. I have one last thing to say, because Bob Lawton gave me the Parish Council Records, the archive, and if only you would look at our archive as well, you will find the information is all there.
BB: Thank you, you have had your three minutes. Thank you very much. I would say that whenever I refer to you, I refer to you as Secretary of SHADCRA.
RC: I have looked at the minutes, and certainly that’s not the case.
BB: Is there anybody else who would like to say something?
PB: Yes, I’d like to say something.
BB: Yes, please do.
PB: My name is Peter Bickles.
BB: Yep.
PB: I got one of those stupid letters from the golf club, telling me I wasn’t allowed to attend that protest down there.
BB: Right.
PB: What you want to **** is that’s Common Land. Any member of the public in the British Isles can go on that land for air and exercise. You acted out of order. You put bits in the paper – when did you have a Parish Council meeting to decide all that?
BB: What bits in the paper? What are you referring to?
PB: You put bits in the paper about the safety and everything else, so when did you have a Parish Council Meeting? You were acting for the Parish Council.
BB: Do you mean the article on the unlawful encampment, when I was called by Stuart Anderson from the EDP about it?
PB: Yes.
BB: And he asked my opinion, and I said we needed to be involved because of safety?
PB: That land is nothing to do with the Parish Council. The Parish Council gave away over £2Million worth of village assets. And what you’ve done in here tonight as well to Steven and Chris – the whole Parish Council is a total disgrace – because that’s golf club. That’s all you are golf club members, drinks parties – you’re a disgrace. You’re not acting for the parishioners; you’re acting for the golf club.
BB: Do you know what, I think I would be happy to call an election tomorrow
PB: Call one then.
BB: We can’t, legally, we have to have everyone’s agreement. But I have to say that since the agenda went out, I haven’t received any complaints from anybody.
PB: Well, you’ve got one now haven’t you…
BB: …And that’s your right as a parishioner, to come here and tell us your opinion…
PB: Those two people do more work in this village than any of you lot.
(Interruption)
BB: Hang on a second Stiffi, he’s still got a disagreement…
S: Are you done Peter?
PB: Yeah, you can have a go now!
BB: Okay, Stiffi.
S: I’ll turn round and say, my father - God rest his soul – would be turning in his grave. He died about two years ago gone December, and he said, you want to watch out for these lot boy – because nobody appreciates what you do around here, until you don’t bloody do it. How you’ve treated these two here, for all they’ve done for all the village, all the things they’ve bought up to help people, the park and go, etc., you don’t realize what goes on behind the scenes. My father turned around, he worked with his brother for donkey’s years, got swindled and geed all the bloody time he went to sea. ‘You wait ‘till I’m gone mate – world will stop!’. Timothy Evans and Derek Bentley, eat your heart out – because I’ve heard nothing.
BB: Thank you Stiffi. Brian, you have had your three minutes. Is there anybody else who would like to speak?
BE: Excuse me, but this is such an important subject, I don’t think the three-minute rule should be enforced…
BB: Brian, I am sorry, but this is a meeting where the rules are put out…
PB: …That’s Nazi rules…
BB: …I think that’s the second time today that it’s been suggested that I am a Nazi.
(General hubbub)
BB: I think that’s the second time today.
RC: You have allowed your Councillors to interrupt all throughout – you’ve allowed Tom De-Winter here on that Zoom meeting…
BB: Rod, you’ve had your three minutes.
RC: Yes, I know I have.
BB: Is there anybody else who would like to speak?
***: Yes, on behalf on the Brancaster Community Sports Club – that is its proper name – I would just like to – whether we can discuss at some stage, how we might manage problems that arise during tennis week…
BB: That would be something that would be good to put on an agenda, I think – To have a discussion about how we can work together as a community with the problems of the teenagers in the summer…
C: On the tennis week?
BB: Over tennis week, yeah.
BL: Well, the simple thing is to lock the tennis court…
***: We did, we did – and they threw bottles over the fence!
BB: Yes, they threw bottles over the fence
***: If I can I enlarge on that, because when I was a Borough Councillor, we actually had an all parties meeting from the police, the supermarkets, the borough, and actually, we managed to calm it down, because we had a lot of – I don’t know if you remember – but we had a lot of groupings on the beach, various parties and things like that, the kids? And actually, we managed to, between that and making it clear to the supermarkets they shouldn’t be selling booze to underage kids and all that kind of stuff, we actually managed to calm it down quite considerably. So maybe – and, it’s a new generation of kids effectively, because actually that was a while ago – we ought to maybe reinstate that.
BB: Yes.
****: Can I just ask - the Zoom meeting where the motion of No Confidence was agreed, was that an EGM, or a six…
BB: …There was no Zoom meeting about the vote of No Confidence.
CC: It was a private meeting, but there must be ***** involved.
BB: There was – I phoned…
****: …How was it arrived at then?
BB: So, I telephoned, after we heard the radio interview that the Councillors did, talking about their participation in the campout, and after I had received this anonymous packet that I sent on to the police right away, I telephoned the Councillors to tell them this.
****: Individually?
BB: Yes.
SB: Well, we never had one.
BB: I spoke to Chris three different times on the phone about three different concerns I had, and things that he had told me that were not true, and I spoke with him three time on the phone about that.
****: Spoke to?
BB: Chris Cotton.
SB: Never spoke to me, I didn’t know anything about it.
CC: I deny being involved in the setting up of that protest. In fact, if all the people were here, including the police, they’d be able to confirm that – we were not involved in setting it up, nowhere near. But, because the Chair of the Parish Council said so – she has got to be believed, regardless of what anybody else says. Simple as that.
SB: I think they had the same problem in Rhodesia at one time.
BB: Are there… Okay, so now I am accused of being – and that’s the third time I am being accused of being a despot…
****: …I haven’t had my three minutes – did any of the other Councillors talk directly to Stephen and Chris?
SB: Sorry?
CC: Did what?
****: Did any of the other Councillors talk directly to you?
BL: No, because that’s dealt with by the chairman.
****: Everything goes through the chair.
****: Oh, okay…
CC: And, normally speaking, anonymous correspondence that comes in to the Parish Council, or members of, is disregarded out of hand because it is anonymous. But for some strange reason, this pile of anonymous correspondence, was accepted, discussed, and this is what you’ve found tonight.
BB: Are there any other members of the public who would like to speak?
****: Can I just ask one question? Steven and Chris…
BB: Who is that, I can’t see…
****: Do they stay on as Councillors?
BB: Yes, they do.
****: They’re just stripped of their portfolios and…
BB: Of their external committees, yes…
SB: But we aren’t going to be doing any work because they are going to be doing all the work for us…
Clerk: I can’t minute if I can’t hear…
BB: Sorry.
****: … It’s just that, I for one, want to say a big thank Chris and Steven for all the work they have done for all their sub-committees, because that has been huge over the years…
BB: George?
****: Two points, (**in the credit of information), in regards to the White Horse planning application, the government appear to be changing the planning rules have something in progress where they intend to allow people like restaurant owners and publicans, to decide on what they do for themselves, and whether to keep existing temporary structures on a permanent basis, so that’s something to look out for in the future. The other thing is again about the big topic tonight, it seems to me that there has been a concerted effort to collect what can only be called a clique, to put an argument for a Vote against these two Councillors, by what shall we say…
CC: …Members of the golf club…
****: …Without naming any names, but on the basis of an anonymous letter, this is how it’s come over to me, and I can’t accept that.
BB: Right, it’s not…
****: Well, they refuted your arguments, and I haven’t heard any evidence from any of you about what your argument is and what evidence you actually have, and I think that should be put – perhaps on the website, so we can all see it.
BB: I will put the statement up. In the statement we say ‘their participation in the unlawful campout’, now…
****: …But that’s an allegation – that’s not proof.
BB: Well, there was a radio broadcast…
****: Is that proof?
BB: There was a press article of them being at the…
****: I don’t accept that.
BB: Okay. That’s fine, that’s fine. George, you would be a very valued member of the Council, and at the next election, I think you should stand.
****: I refused twenty years ago, I’m still of the same mind.
SB: I’ve been on this Parish Council on and off for thirty odd years. How long have you been on it – how long have you lived in the village?
BB: I think at this point, if – are there any other public…
PB: As Celia has a Common Right on Barrow Common, if she puts a tent up for one night, are you going to chuck her off the Parish Council? Or is that not to do with the golf club?
BB: Are there any other public comments?
PB: You’re a disgrace woman, and the rest of you – ****??…
BB: …We are going to close this meeting now… We are closing this meeting and we are going into Private Session. Thank you everybody for coming. Thank you for coming.


Audio extracts taken from the audio recording also included, recorded by LPB.
Transcription by LPB.
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