Parish council near Banbury denies any wrongdoing after complaint from disabled resident

Adderbury resident Philip Le Mare has long been involved with his village’s Morris men and said he attended last Wednesday’s (April 17) Adderbury Annual Parish Meeting to find out about the upcoming Morris dancing festival.

However, when Mr Le Mare asked the chair of the parish council, Cllr Diane Bratt, about what facilities were available to those with hearing difficulties, he said he was left shocked by her response.

He said: “I approached Diane before the meeting started and asked her what facilities were available and whether there was a hearing loop.

"She told me that there were no facilities in the room they were using and that there was nothing she could do about it.”

Mr Le Mare said that he then reminded her of the legal obligation of the council to provide facilities for disabled people as introduced in the 2010 Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities.

Cllr Bratt strongly disputes his side of events and says she was not rude and she did all she could to help him.

She said she believed Mr Le Mare was being confrontational and continued to insist the meeting was illegal.

She added: "Mr Le Mare asked me before the meeting started if there was a hearing loop.

"I told him I didn’t know about hearing loops and referred him to a member of the Methodist Hall who might know. He came back and told me she did not think there was - again Mr Le Mare repeated his view that it was an illegal meeting and should be stopped.

"I told him at that stage I could do nothing more."

Once the meeting got underway, Mr Le Mare said he raised a point of order to ask whether any hearing support facilities could be provided to him as he was unable to hear.

He added: “This caused a commotion, with comments from the crowd at the meeting such as, ‘here, borrow my hearing aid’, and ‘just turn your aids up’.

“The cacophony of noise at this point was so much that I couldn’t hear anything at all, so I just left the meeting, feeling embarrassed and disappointed by the lack of support."

In response, Cllr Bratt said: "When I opened the meeting he called a point of order with reference to provision of a hearing loop, again insisting the meeting was illegal and should be stopped.

"At this point a couple of residents in the audience made comments to him and I called for order. Mr Le Mare got up, saying he could not take part in an illegal meeting and left the room, slamming the door.

"In actual fact the meeting was not illegal and had been well advertised for some time. Had Mr Le Mare given the parish council notice of his disability we could have tried to accommodate him.

"If Mr Le Mare felt humiliated and embarrassed as he says, it was down to his own behaviour."

Mr Le Mare, a former parish councillor himself and someone heavily involved with organising events in the village, says he is "disgusted" by the way he was treated and that it has put him off attending further meetings.

He now wants hearing facilities provided for all future meetings and an apology from the council. He said he has also lodged formal complaints regarding how he was treated.

Adderbury Parish Council added: "The parish council thanks Mr Le Mare for raising the issue of hearing loops at the Annual Parish Meeting and apologises that a hearing loop was not available in the Methodist schoolroom.

"The parish council recognises it has a responsibility to make reasonable adjustments for those who are deaf or hard of hearing wherever possible, if they are requested, but would like to make clear that the council understands that provision of such equipment is the responsibility of the building’s owner, not the parish council.

"Many older buildings used for meetings do not have such equipment but the PC will encourage owners to provide such.

"The parish council wishes to state that it would never discriminate against a disabled person nor be dismissive of such requests as has been suggested by Mr Le Mare.

"The parish council does not accept the criticism which has recently been made on social media and in the Banbury Guardian, much of which comes from people who were not even at the meeting, nor does the PC recognise these accounts as being what actually took place.

"The parish council believes that the parish chairman acted properly and did not discriminate, nor was she rude or dismissive as has been suggested. There were a number of people at the meeting and their accounts do not match those being circulated in the press and social media.

"These people do not wish to make their recollections public for fear of being vilified by Facebook users and the Banbury Guardian, which is understandable due to the uncalled for comments made on social media and in the press."

Cllr Bratt added: "Parish councillors are very hard working and community spirited people who give up a considerable amount of time to their community. Myself, the clerk and other councillors gave up our evening to provide a report of all the positive and constructive things the parish council has achieved throughout the past year but this one incident following one individual’s rude behaviour has managed to detract from what actually was an excellent meeting.

"The parish council and a residents group Working for Adderbury Community have actually been working hard to achieve a new community and sports centre in Adderbury, which will of course have all modern facilities so we are already working to improve the public buildings in Adderbury.”

Editor’s note: We did try to contact the chair of the parish council before we published the original version of this story but we did not hear back from her. We accept that we should have tried harder to make contact with her, or the parish council, to get their side of the events before publication. Their statement and comments have now been included in this version.