Former SaD Town and current Sadgebore District Councillor Fencesitter was forced to defend his defence of the Mayor, Cllr Kelsey Dullard, yesterday.
Cllr Fencesitter had claimed that he had spoken to the Mayor about her clandestine meeting about the future of the tree on the corner of Vicarage and Barrow Road and that she had told him that she had invited “a resident to attend, based on having seen their photo in a local news article.”
However, following an investigation by SomersetClive, it emerged that the invited resident was someone the Mayor knew from her used teabag collecting sessions on Smalltown Beach and had not appeared in any photos of the Save Our Tree group.
Cllr Fencesitter has since changed his story. Refusing to comment on the identity of the person invited, he said “When I said I spoke to the Mayor what I meant was I attended a meeting with the Mayor. I can’t tell you any details of the meeting, because it was a secret meeting, but I can tell you that I was stood behind the Mayor at one point and she said something.
Now that I’ve had time to think about it, I’m not entirely sure what she actually said. My hearing isn’t what it used to be and with the benefit of hindsight I now actually think she may have asked me if I wanted another cup of tea.
Somehow in my head that translated to something about a meeting that most definitely was not held in secret with only four people present and how lovely it was to meet the Leader of the All-New-Yet-Unimproved Somerset Cuonty Council and to unilaterally agree to his and his Branch Manager’s suggestion that the tree be felled, without consulting anyone else. It’s an easy mistake to make
To be honest, I’ll be glad when it’s the end of March and I’m no longer a Councillor in any shape or form. I’ve never been very good at the job, and I can’t keep up the pretence any longer.”
At least Councillor Fencesitter has got that right.