Never mind Jackie Weaver, here are the top council scandals in Bucks

A video of the council meeting from December 10 that was uploaded to Twitter this week immediately went viral after it descended into chaos, with councillors swearing and arguing, and eventually being thrown out by the now eponymous Ms Weaver.

Parish council meetings are generally fairly innocuous affairs with planning applications, budgets and parking high on the list, but we’ve delved into our archives to take a look back at our own council scandals – Bucks has had its fair share.

Remember when half of the councillors at Hazlemere Parish Council resigned in 2013, saying it had become “completely dysfunctional”?

Pictured: Cedar Barn

At the start of the monthly meeting, six resignation letters were read out, with one saying a small minority of the council “continue to criticise everything”.

One councillor resigned due to ill health, while another said in her letter that she joined the council to make a “positive difference”, but said she realised not everyone on the council held the same view.

Bourne End campaigners said in 2015 “democracy has bitten back” after Cllr Roger Colomb was ousted from a development liaison group four years after he controversially voted twice to allow a supermarket to open its doors in their village.

Pictured: The BFP front page from February 11, 2011

Residents slammed the independent councillor in 2011 for using a chairman’s casting vote to rule in favour of a Tesco store opening in Bourne End, but they said in 2015 they avenged this after removing him from a group looking into another village development threat.

It came after pleas to reject the store in 2011 were cast aside when Cllr Colomb used two votes – including a ‘casting vote’ – to back the decision for Wycombe District Council to stand aside, which was permitted under the council’s standing orders.

Bourne End and Wooburn Parish Council also saw controversy in 2010, when it was told to “stop bickering” after the chairman resigned and the clerk “stormed out” of a meeting for the second time that year.

The events were likened to a “pantomime”.

In 1998, a councillor burst into tears and resigned from Hughenden Parish Council in frustration after a stormy meeting, telling the BFP at the time: “I cried in frustration that we get little done because of one member.”

She was the third Cllr to resign that year, with two more threatening to follow in her footsteps.

She was referring to a fellow councillor whose behaviour was slammed for being “abominable…over 10 years”, with councillors saying they deplored her “unwarranted criticism” of four councillors and the parish council clerk which she had made in a letter.

Most recently, a Buckinghamshire councillor could be seen smiling as a colleague “stormed out” of a virtual meeting having challenged him on an alleged personal interest.

Cllr Marten Clarke withdrew from a West Buckinghamshire Area Planning Committee meeting, broadcast on Tuesday, January 5, after fellow Conservative Cllr Chris Whitehead “insulted his integrity”.

And in a meeting last July, a hungry dog stole the show when she snatched a sweet treat live on air.

Cllr Brian Pearce (top middle) from Wycombe Independent, was snacking on biscuits during a heated discussion about climate change when he offered one to his beloved pooch Aero.

The 18-month-old chocolate Labrador couldn’t believe her luck and gladly accepted the morsel, catching the eye of several other councillors.

Cllr Richard Scott, who was chairing the meeting, warned Cllrs about their on-screen actions, making reference to eating and drinking on camera.

Meanwhile, in June 2008, Radnage Parish Council was dissolved after a packed hall of residents demanded councillors step down from their roles.

Almost 50 people attended the meeting at Radnage Village Hall, and many heckled the councillors throughout the evening.

And in June 2010, Lane End Parish Council’s vice president resigned and stormed out of a meeting, saying he was “ashamed” of the council for its “disinterest” in a church’s youth service.

Ms Weaver spoke out on Women’s Hour this morning about “bullying and bad behaviour” in councils, and admitting she was not “actually sure” who was meant to be in charge of the meeting.