THE mayor of Liskeard has called for a spirit of unity and an end to the squabbling between councillors and members of the Town Team who are responsible for the successful Portas Pilot Bid.

The bid has secured £100,000 to help with the rejuvenation of  Liskeard's shopping centre.

Tony Powell was appealing for calm at Tuesday night's town council meeting in the aftermath of a walkout by some councillors from a packed Town Forum meeting of more than 300 people in the Public Hall on Friday.

 Town clerk Andrew Deacon and councillors Lori Reid, Steve Barrett, Katrina Dawe and Rosa Mashiter, left because they said the meeting was not being correctly run according to the forum's constitution which states that before you can take part in any voting, you must have attended more than three consecutive meetings in a year.

They were supported in their stance by Rik Jones, chairman of the Liskeard Chamber of Commerce, who also left and has since resigned his position.

Chairman of the forum meeting, cllr Roger Holmes, had allowed the Town Team to throw open the voting on their future rules of governance to all present, which had been challenged by cllrs Barrett and Dawe as not constitutionally correct. But cllr Holmes said it was a special meeting and, therefore, everyone should be able to vote.

Wonderful

The forum, set up by the town council, holds regular meetings to give members of the public a chance to have their say.

Meanwhile, in congratulating the Portas team at the council meeting, on what he described as a 'wonderful achievement for the town' the mayor said: 'There has been a lot of nonsense chatted about, but we must put all that behind us. My plea to everyone is to move forward as one – with the town council, the team and the bid – and in that spirit we should all be successful,'

Sally Hawken, leader of the Portas Bid, speaking at the council meeting, appealed to the town council to work as part of the Town Team to make Liskeard's pilot as stunning as it can be. She particularly wanted the council and the Town Team to develop their thoughts about markets together for the benefit of the whole town. She also said that on the matter of governance discussed at Friday's Town Forum meeting, the decisions reached by the public would be taken back to the next meeting of the forum on July 11.

Speaking in his defence to allow the free vote at the forum meeting, cllr Holmes said afterwards: 'I was disappointed to see some councillors leave but the number of people there were not going to be restrained –  there would have been a revolution. The people have now taken over the Portas Bid and the executive board voted for will carry it forward. When people are in flow in a democracy we do not have the right to stop them.'

Opinion

Cllr Dawe said: 'I was very concerned as a constituted member of the forum when it became apparent at the meeting, that the public, quite rightly expressing their opinions and support,  were, in my personal opinion, being misled and misinformed about their right to vote.'