A meeting of the High Wycombe Town Committee erupted into fury on Tuesday night as the chair threatened to eject a councillor for joking about the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Conservative Councillor Paul Turner suggested he may have to kick Councillor Julia Wassell out of the council chamber for her remarks.
His threat came after the Wycombe Independent sarcastically asked members: “Has the Queen passed away?”
Cllr Turner replied: “Sorry, can we move on before I have to eject a member for being rude?”
The chair said he would take it up with democratic services, with Cllr Arif Hussain adding that the request was being looked at.
Cllr Wassell’s joke about the Queen’s death came after she and Cllr Turner also butted heads earlier on in the meeting.
The pair had shouted over one another after the chair announced an update for the September meeting on monies from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and how these can be used in Wycombe.
Cllr Wassell told the chair: “You skimmed across CIL very niftily. Will you be declaring a conflict of interest when the schemes that you have promoted are put forward and discussed?
“It seems to me; this CIL should be called the Conservative Infrastructure Levy.”
Cllr Turner replied: “Sorry, we are not going to have any politics tonight. Councillor Wassell, can you stop right there. You are introducing politics to a meeting when we cannot discuss that.”
He then added: “Councillor Wassell can you stop talking. We are not discussing the detail of any CIL application.
“I have explained what we are doing and if you don’t like that, you can take it up with me after the meeting.”
During the meeting, members were told that the committee’s budget for 2023/24 contained an underspend of £188,000, the ‘majority of which was in cemeteries’.
Labour Councillor Karen Bates picked up the issue, asking the committee why it was holding onto so much money for grants.
She said: “Yes, it is true that most of the underspend is on cemeteries if you look at the actual amount of money.
“However, if you consider the community grants, we only spent 39 per cent of what we allocated. Sixty-one per cent of the money allocated was not spent. Why are we not spending the money?”
Cllr Turner acknowledged her concerns and said he told everyone he met that the grants were available and suggested publicising them further.
