A MAYOR has urged councillors to reflect on their conduct after a local authority’s most important meeting of the year descended into unseemly scenes and bitter recriminations, sparking concerns for the democratic process.

Darlington Borough Council’s annual council tax setting meeting, which also saw its Local Plan moved forward, saw its chairman, the Mayor of Darlington Councillor Nick Wallis, forced to call for order in the chamber numerous times and describe an incident in which male Conservative councillors talked over a female Labour member as “an ugly episode”.

After the meeting, while the council’s leader, Councillor Heather Scott accused the mayor of showing bias towards his party while managing debates, opposition leaders voiced fury that a second female councillor had also been prevented from presenting her proposals by the Tories.

Uproar initially broke out in the council chamber as Labour councillor Libby McCollom was jeered by Conservative members.

Later, Green councillor Bryony Holroyd was stopped from speaking in mid-sentence by Councillor Charles Johnson, the authority’s deputy leader.

Many councillors appeared shocked as he called a procedural motion for an immediate vote on the Local Plan, preventing Cllr Holroyd from completing her speech.

The mayor said he had to agree to the motion, but added: “I do think we need to extend the courtesy of listening to all members before we move on.”

After the meeting Cllr Scott said she “wasn’t particularly happy” about Cllr Johnson’s use of the motion and the way the meeting progressed.

Cllr Scott said she did not feel the mayor had been impartial during the debates, and had displayed a clear bias towards his party. She said: “I felt he could have been a bit stronger.”

Cllr Wallis said he had been acutely conscious of the need to be fair to all sides.

He said: “There were a lot of members of the public there, and I wanted debate to be fair and reasonable and show councillors in a good light. I’m afraid the meeting fell below that standard. I hope everybody will reflect on that.”

Labour leader Councillor Stephen Harker said democracy was about both sides being able to put over their views and the decision to summarily halt a debate was akin to the council shouting ‘I’m not listening’.