AN ANGRY councillor told the Mayor of the Royal Borough to ‘go to hell’ after being kicked out of a meeting.

At a full virtual council meeting on June 23 (Tuesday), a heated argument broke out between Independent councillor Geoffrey Hill (The Borough First: Oldfield) and Mayor Sayonara Luxton (Conservative: Sunningdale and Cheapside) when the debate on his amendment on the constitution by reducing the number of signatures required for a petition to be discussed at full council from 1,500 to 1,000 was cut short.

A closure motion – which ends the debate on an item and goes straight to the vote – was successfully put forward by councillor Gurpreet Bhangra (Con: Boyn Hill) and, during the closure vote, Cllr Hill tried talk further about his proposal.

The Independent councillor was ejected from the meeting after he told Mayor Luxton ‘I don’t care’ when she tried to get him to vote on the closure motion.

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When Cllr Hill was told he was being kicked out of the meeting, he said: “Yep, I’m ready to go to bed, Madam Mayor.

“Go to hell. I’m out.”

Councillor Hill’s amendment was defeated 18 for and 22 against.

Old Windsor Residents’ Association councillor Neil Knowles (Old Windsor) – who seconded the amendment – expressed his disgust on the closure motion being carried.

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He said: “I can appreciate councillor Hill’s frustration about this using the procedure with a guaranteed whip majority to make sure that it doesn’t go forward for anymore discussion.

“Personally, I think it’s sad. We are denying access to have things discussed by our residents. That’s all it is.

“It’s a great pity where things don’t make the watermark or benchmark and then don’t put forward as a petition.

“There may be a massively emotive subject concerning a relatively small group of people and attaching such a high threshold I think denies them access to have it discussed in council.”

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Councillor Jon Davey (West Windsor Residents’ Association: Clewer and Dedworth West) was also kicked out of the meeting by the Mayor when he questioned why another closure motion was put forward by councillor Bhangra on another amendment on the constitution.

He called the motion ‘undemocratic’ and the meeting ‘a waste of bloody time’.

In protest, councillor Knowles left the meeting.