Jackie Weaver admits she ‘DOESN’T KNOW’ who had authority at chaotic Handforth Parish Council

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Until today Handforth’s claim to fame was being home to one of Britain’s biggest M&S superstores and its proximity to Manchester Airport.

But the town in east Cheshire, surrounded by villages inhabited by millionaire footballers, is now firmly on the map after an explosive parish council meeting was watched by 3million people on YouTube and began trending globally on Twitter.  

During the seven-minute edited highlights package of Handforth Parish Council’s planning committee’s December hearing someone is heard exclaiming: ‘f*** off’ at the start, a toilet flushes and another person answers the front door as councillors from two rival factions struggled with the mute button. 

But it is clerk Jackie Weaver’s battle with council chairman Brian Tolver that has captured the nation’s imagination and is being dubbed Britain’s worst-ever Zoom meeting after it was tweeted by a Labour activist whose hobby is ‘watching random council meetings’. 

One insider told MailOnline today the row is just the tip of the iceberg, calling the parish council a ‘den of bullying’ where two rival factions have been warring for months over who should be leader.

Mr Tolver was thrown out of the pre-Christmas hearing – the second meeting in a row – after he accused rival councillors of calling it illegally and yelling: ‘You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver! NO AUTHORITY AT ALL!’ and repeatedly telling her to ‘stop talking’. 

Jackie, acting as the clerk, then kicked him off Zoom for being ‘disruptive’.

Today its star Ms Weaver hinted she didn’t have the authority to eject the parish council chairman – but revealed she was there as a peacemaker because of incendiary rows on the planning committee where members regularly traded insults and claims of a ‘poisonous power grab’.

Ms Weaver told BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour: ‘Of that meeting I’m not actually sure who was in charge. We had two councillors who had legitimately called a meeting, and at that point, my job is supporting them to hold that meeting, and to make sure they were able to hold that meeting.’ She added: ‘I’m not a councillor nor am I member of the parish council’. 

And in a sign their battle won’t go away, the man she ejected, council chairman Brian Tolver, doubled down today, insisting he had no regrets about his behaviour and said his nemesis ‘had no status to speak other than when invited’. 

Mr Tolver, who said he was the only person with the power to eject councillors, said today of Ms Weaver’s behaviour: ‘I cannot think of any other council meeting anywhere, that was taken over by an unqualified member of the public like this. Removing half the councillors from the meeting denied half of the voters of the village from being represented – it was an appalling attack on their democratic rights. This made tensions rise, and that is why voices were raised in the second meeting.’ 

Handforth is just north of Wilmslow which is part of Cheshire affluent ‘Golden Triangle’ area popular with Premier League footballers. Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United and food poverty campaigner Marcus Rashford lives there.  Handforth itself a largely middle-class area with a shopping centre, several pubs and a large garden centre.

The row began when the council’s chairman Brian Tolver was accused of not attending meetings for around six months because he didn’t consider them legitimate. Minutes from the December meeting show that Cllrs John Smith and Susan Moore because because Cllr Tolver ‘refused’ to do so. 

It appears that the battle between the two camps is not over a controversial planning application or footpaths, but a bureaucratic dispute over who runs the council.

One faction, backing the authority of Jackie Weaver, claims Brian Tolver is a ‘disgraceful’ chairman who has too much power and is stopping the council making any decisions. Cllr’s Tover’s supporters believe a coup is underway and refuse to recognise the legitimacy of the December 10 that has exploded online.

And today MailOnline can reveal it is not the first time things have got heated, after unearthing footage of a 2017 meeting that exploded during discussions about plans for more car-parking and affordable housing in Handforth. Footage of the meeting showed councillors standing up, pointing fingers and shouting at each other as the debate over the future of the town boiled over as one female councillor yelled repeatedly: ‘Don’t dictate to me’. 

Peter Moore, 70, one of those on the zoom call, described the parish council as a ‘den of bullying’ which has been warring for months, prompting the laptop fisticuffs. ‘It has become chaotic,’ he told MailOnline. ‘Nothing is getting done. It has been like this for a while. This meeting was brought forward to try and get things moving.

‘They came to the meeting to disrupt it – the aggressive and bullying ones. They have turned it into a den of bullying.’

The row started several months ago between two warring camps within the parish council with four on one side and three on the other.

One councillor, Jean Thompson, was dismissed as she did not attend meetings for six months. So now the council is split with three councillors on each side: Brian Tolver, Aled Brewerton and Barry Burkhill versus John Smith, Cynthia Samson and Susan Moore.

Mr Moore, the husband of councillor Susan Moore, said: ‘One councillor didn’t attend for six months so by council law you are gone.

‘A partial observer would say that (Mr Tolver, Mr Brewerton and Mr Burkhill) will lose control in May with the council elections.

‘That is what is driving it. They tend to block things that they do not put forward.

‘The controlling group has become increasingly angry and aggressive. They do nothing. They fought very hard to keep the councillor but she is missing.’

Councillor Barry Burkhill’s wife Sue Bideford who is deputy mayoress of Cheshire East, said: ‘The meeting was illegal and should not have been allowed.

‘But what is behind it is a poisonous power grab.’

Jackie Weaver hosted a meeting of Handforth Parish Council in which councillors lost their cool and traded insults, leading to her kicking chairman Brian Tolver off the Zoom call.

A clip of the December 10 meeting, which was put on Twitter on Thursday afternoon, had been viewed more than three million times by Friday morning, much to the shock of Ms Weaver.

The meeting of the parish council in Cheshire marked the second time Mr Tolver had been removed, having previously been evicted from the earlier 7pm planning and environment committee call.

In the 7.30pm extraordinary meeting, Mr Tolver told Ms Weaver, chief officer of the Cheshire Association of Local Councils (ChALC), to ‘stop talking’, and added: ‘You have no authority here.’

In response, Ms Weaver removed Mr Tolver from the Zoom call and placed him in a virtual waiting room.

After Jackie Weaver ejects Mr Tolver, his ally Councillor Aled Brewerton is shown angrily shouting at Ms Weaver when she tries to elect a new chairman: ‘No they can’t because the vice chair is here! I take charge! Read the standing orders. Read them and understand them!’. 

An irate Cllr Brewerton then yells off camera: ‘We’re trying to have a Teams meeting you fool!’ He was also later ejected.

The row came weeks after another brutal meeting where Jackie Weaver had ejected the chairman from the Zoom.

Mr Tolver had claimed the agenda was ‘concealed’ and, following a series of interjections and claims the meeting was not legitimate, he was eventually removed by Ms Weaver.

Ms Weaver claims she had been asked to be there as a member of the Cheshire Association of Local Councils after a series of row.

She said today: ‘If you want the boring detail, we had two councillors who had legitimately called a meeting, and at that point, my job is supporting them to hold that meeting, and to make sure they were able to hold that meeting.’ She added: ‘I’m not a councillor nor am I member of the parish council’.

And Ms Weaver has admitted today that she was there in a support role but insisted she was badly treated by ‘bullying’ councillors.  

She said: ‘I’ve had nothing but really lovely positive support from people, who of course condemned the behaviour. There is an element of bullying and bad behaviour around in local councils, and a lot of us are working very hard, that involves central government, to try to do something about that’.     

Mr Tolver today said he did not regret how he had acted in the meeting, including telling Ms Weaver to ‘stop talking’, and insisted she had no authority to throw him out.

He said Ms Weaver – who hosted the Zoom call and removed him from it – was not the true clerk and was just present as a member of the public and ‘had no status to speak other than when invited’.

‘If you look at the first meeting you will see I have reason to be angry,’ he said.

Mr Tolver added he had never seen another instance where a council meeting was taken over by an ‘unqualified member of the public’, in reference to Ms Weaver.

His said: ‘The video that you have viewed is the second Parish Council meeting of that evening.

‘That shows the angry reaction from councillors to the illegal behaviour of Jackie Weaver in the first meeting – the provocation that caused that reaction.

‘The law concerns the conduct of Parish Council meetings states as follows: ‘At a meeting of a parish council the chairman, if present, shall preside*’

‘The action of the person operating the Zoom system (Jackie Weaver) was a serious breach of this law. Not only was I prevented from conducting the meeting, two other councillors were also ejected by the same lady for protesting that my ejection was unlawful.

‘I cannot think of any other council meeting anywhere that was taken over by an unqualified member of the public like this.

‘Removing half the councillors from the meeting, denied half of the voters of the village from being represented – it was an appalling attack on their democratic rights.

‘This made tensions rise and that is why voices were raised in the second meeting, of which you have copies of or will have seen on the internet.

‘In the second meeting, I was trying to explain the correct procedure to this lady and say her actions were out of order, but she seems to have believed that she could do whatever she chose.

‘I have never, ever heard of someone abusing the proper process of conducting council meetings in such an extraordinary fashion as she did.

‘I am still somewhat in shock that anyone would interfere in the proper democratic rights of residents in this way.’

Video footage of another row involving Handforth Parish Council more than three years ago has emerged.

The video shows a heated meeting at Handforth Youth Centre involving the the-then crop of councillors discussing money for more car-parking and affordable housing in Handforth.

A member of the public claims Brian Tolver had praised fellow councillor Brian Burkill for securing funding for improvements to the village.

But the member of the public said the council had not received ‘a penny of the funding’ for over two years.

Councillors then have a heated back-and-forth with the public over getting more funding for the area.

The row took place in 2017, prior to the 2019 election, where a number of new councillors were elected. 

Video footage of another row involving Handforth Parish Council more than three years ago has emerged.

The video shows a heated meeting at Handforth Youth Centre involving the the-then crop of councillors discussing money for more car-parking and affordable housing in Handforth.

A member of the public claims Brian Tolver had praised fellow councillor Brian Burkill for securing funding for improvements to the village.

But the member of the public said the council had not received ‘a penny of the funding’ for over two years.

Councillors then have a heated back-and-forth with the public over getting more funding for the area.

The row took place in 2017, prior to the 2019 election, where a number of new councillors were elected. 

Jackie Weaver became a global Twitter trending topic last night and today finds herself installed as a tongue-in-cheek favourite to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

But the December 10 Handforth Parish Council Planning & Environment Committee meeting was, its minutes assure us, an extraordinary meeting – leaving a shocking trail of chaos, power grabs and insults.

The meeting, footage of which surfaced yesterday, starts badly.

As the fine burghers of the east Cheshire village (‘a fast-growing community connecting Cheshire to Greater Manchester, with a major retail centre and luxury car outlets, and easy access to Manchester Airport’) gather for the 7:30pm Zoom call, a male voice chimes in from off-camera. ‘F*** off,’ he says.

We then meet parish council chairman Brian Tolver and matters don’t improve. His Zoom title, despite being the chairman, is ‘Handforth PC clerk’. There is clearly history here.

Mrs Weaver said no one could stop Cllr Tolver describing himself as the meeting’s clerk, or indeed anything else. ‘Please refer to me as Britney Spears from now on,’ she adds. 

He addresses the meeting’s actual clerk, Jackie Weaver, drafted in from the peacekeeping corps of the Cheshire Association of Local Councils. ‘Can we be assured that we won’t be thrown out of the meeting like we were last time?’ he says, leaning towards the camera and sucking his teeth for emphasis.

‘As long as we have reasonable behaviour from everyone,’ Mrs Weaver replies.

A reasonable request, perhaps. But Cllr Tolver is an independent councillor in more than just name.

He was thrown out last time, he reminds the room. (‘Quite rightly too,’ a colleague pipes up.) And before the meeting can even begin, he returns to taking Mrs Weaver to task. What is she doing there?

‘I am here offering support to Handforth Parish Council in the conduct of the meeting this evening,’ she assures him, but Cllr Tolver is having none of it. This Zoom call ain’t big enough for two parish council clerks.

‘It isn’t the role of someone who, however kindly, volunteers to do the clerking of a meeting to act as a Proper Officer if they haven’t so been appointed,’ Cllr Tolver insists. ‘That’s against the law.’

Ms Weaver attempts to fight her corner, but the chair remains sturdy, if inelegant. ‘Stop talking,’ he bellows.

The chair decides business at Handforth Parish Council meetings, the chair insists, and ‘God knows what you’re doing in your job’ if you don’t know that. (‘Who is this woman?’ another disembodied voice asks.)

Cllr Tolver continues with another reference to the previous darkness casting a shadow over today’s proceedings. 

‘We will start the meeting, and I want to repeat what I said at the beginning of the last meeting, that this meeting has not been called according to the law. The law has been broken.’

‘It has been properly called,’ Mrs Weaver assures him.

‘Will you PLEASE let the chairman speak,’ the chairman demands.

‘Mrs Weaver PLEASE,’ a further man squeaks from ‘Aled’s iPad’ on the Zoom sidelines. The crowd is getting agitated.

Mrs Weaver attempts to regain calm. ‘If you disrupt this meeting, I will have to remove you from it,’ she says,

‘You can’t! It is only the chairman who can remove people from a meeting,’ the chairman, who was removed from the previous meeting, cries. ‘You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver! NO AUTHORITY AT ALL!’

It was a bold shot – one likely to live on in memes, on mugs and on t-shirts – but it was his parting one.

‘She’s just kicked him out,’ says Aled’s iPad, which it seemingly takes two men to operate.

Mrs Weaver attempts to continue: ‘This is a meeting called by two councillors…’

‘Illegally,’ the squeakier of the Aleds interjects.

‘…who can now elect a new chairman,’ Mrs Weaver patiently finishes.

‘No they can’t because the vice chair is here! I take charge!’ Squeaky Aled leans forward, revealing himself as Cllr Aled Brewerton. ‘Read the standing orders,’ he roars at Ms Weaver. ‘READ THEM AND UNDERSTAND THEM!’

‘Deary me,’ someone sighs.

Cllr Barry Burkhill appears, squinting at a camera from a room basking in an unreassuring yellow glow.

‘Where’s the chairman?’ he asks, a theme he returns to over the coming minutes, regardless of who is speaking.

Mrs Weaver again attempts to get a new chairman elected – but Cllr Burkhill assures her ‘you don’t know what you’re talking about’.

‘Can I ask you to be respectful to Jackie Weaver please,’ a female colleague on the call says, prompting belly laughs from the stalls. Non-squeaky Aled holds his stomach and rocks back and forth in glee. Good one! Be respectful to Jackie Weaver! Jackie Weaver has no authority here!

Cllr Brewerton notices Cllr Burkhill has now been removed too, and he’s not squeaking now – instead hissing.

‘We’re trying to have a Teams meeting, you fool,’ he rasps, regrettably off camera so whether his head rotated at the same time remained unclear.

But saintly Jackie is more than a match for such foes. With a wave of her dismissing finger, both men on Aled’s iPad vanish, joining Cllrs Tolver and Burkhill in the limbo of the waiting area.

Cllr John Smith is elected chairman and the meeting can begin. ‘Welcome to Handforth,’ he says, wearily.

‘It’s nothing if not lively,’ Mrs Weaver responds. 

‘Read the standing orders, LEARN THEM!’: Internet explodes in memes as Handforth Parish Council members are likened to Conan the Barbarian and Gandalf after fiery Zoom meeting was watched by 2m people across globe

Social media has today exploded with memes about a bizarre parish council meeting which ended in a blazing row.

People took to the internet to mock the meeting, which saw a huge argument break out during an online meeting of Handforth Parish Council in Cheshire.

Members of the council were likened to Conan the Barbarian and the Lord of the Rings wizard Gandalf, as people used the internet to poke fun at comical parish council video – which has now been watched by 2million people across the globe.

One Twitter user compared the moment a councillor screams ‘READ THE STANDING ORDERS, READ THEM AND UNDERSTAND THEM’ during the conference call to the famous ‘THIS, IS, SPARTA’ scene in the Hollywood blockbuster ‘300’. 

Another, using the same quote, compared it with an image of a famous bust-up between Newcastle team mates Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer during a Premier League match in 2005. 

Others compared the huge row during the tiny village council meeting to Tubbs – the insidious shop owner from comedy show League of Gentlemen who claimed her store was a ‘local shop for local people’.

Social media users also picked up on part of the row in which local government assistant Jackie Weaver referred to herself as ‘Britney Spears’ when one of the councillors changed their Zoom name to ‘Handforth PC Clerk’.

Others backed Jackie – who is not a councillor but was providing mediation for the extraordinary meeting – due to her calm and controlled responses in the face of rising anger from councillors. 

Some also compared the incident to Dawn French’s show the Vicar of Dibley, where the comedian’s character would take part in meetings of the bungling local council. 

The incident was sparked after December 10th Handforth Parish Council Planning & Environment Committee meeting was posted online. 

The meeting, footage of which surfaced yesterday, starts badly.

As the fine burghers of the east Cheshire village (‘a fast-growing community connecting Cheshire to Greater Manchester, with a major retail centre and luxury car outlets, and easy access to Manchester Airport’) gather for the 7:30pm Zoom call, a male voice chimes in from off-camera. ‘F*** off,’ he says.

We then meet parish council chairman Brian Tolver and matters don’t improve. His Zoom title, despite being the chairman, is ‘Handforth PC clerk’. There is clearly history here.

Mrs Weaver said no one could stop Cllr Tolver describing himself as the meeting’s clerk, or indeed anything else. ‘Please refer to me as Britney Spears from now on,’ she adds. 

He addresses the meeting’s actual clerk, Jackie Weaver, drafted in from the peacekeeping corps of the Cheshire Association of Local Councils. ‘Can we be assured that we won’t be thrown out of the meeting like we were last time?’ he says, leaning towards the camera and sucking his teeth for emphasis.

‘As long as we have reasonable behaviour from everyone,’ Mrs Weaver replies.

A reasonable request, perhaps. But Cllr Tolver is an independent councillor in more than just name.

He was thrown out last time, he reminds the room. (‘Quite rightly too,’ a colleague pipes up.) And before the meeting can even begin, he returns to taking Mrs Weaver to task. What is she doing there?

‘I am here offering support to Handforth Parish Council in the conduct of the meeting this evening,’ she assures him, but Cllr Tolver is having none of it. This Zoom call ain’t big enough for two parish council clerks.

‘It isn’t the role of someone who, however kindly, volunteers to do the clerking of a meeting to act as a Proper Officer if they haven’t so been appointed,’ Cllr Tolver insists. ‘That’s against the law.’  

Ms Weaver attempts to fight her corner, but the chair remains sturdy, if inelegant. ‘Stop talking,’ he bellows.

The chair decides business at Handforth Parish Council meetings, the chair insists, and ‘God knows what you’re doing in your job’ if you don’t know that. (‘Who is this woman?’ another disembodied voice asks.)

Cllr Tolver continues with another reference to the previous darkness casting a shadow over today’s proceedings.

‘We will start the meeting, and I want to repeat what I said at the beginning of the last meeting, that this meeting has not been called according to the law. The law has been broken.’

‘It has been properly called,’ Mrs Weaver assures him.

‘Will you PLEASE let the chairman speak,’ the chairman demands.

‘Mrs Weaver PLEASE,’ a further man squeaks from ‘Aled’s iPad’ on the Zoom sidelines. The crowd is getting agitated.

Mrs Weaver attempts to regain calm. ‘If you disrupt this meeting, I will have to remove you from it,’ she says,

‘You can’t! It is only the chairman who can remove people from a meeting,’ the chairman, who was removed from the previous meeting, cries. ‘You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver! NO AUTHORITY AT ALL!’

It was a bold shot – one likely to live on in memes, on mugs and on t-shirts – but it was his parting one.

‘She’s just kicked him out,’ says Aled’s iPad, which it seemingly takes two men to operate.

Mrs Weaver attempts to continue: ‘This is a meeting called by two councillors…’

‘Illegally,’ the squeakier of the Aleds interjects.

‘…who can now elect a new chairman,’ Mrs Weaver patiently finishes.

‘No they can’t because the vice chair is here! I take charge!’ Squeaky Aled leans forward, revealing himself as Cllr Aled Brewerton. ‘Read the standing orders,’ he roars at Ms Weaver. ‘READ THEM AND UNDERSTAND THEM!’

‘Deary me,’ someone sighs.

Cllr Barry Burkhill appears, squinting at a camera from a room basking in an unreassuring yellow glow.

‘Where’s the chairman?’ he asks, a theme he returns to over the coming minutes, regardless of who is speaking.

Mrs Weaver again attempts to get a new chairman elected – but Cllr Burkhill assures her ‘you don’t know what you’re talking about’.

‘Can I ask you to be respectful to Jackie Weaver please,’ a female colleague on the call says, prompting belly laughs from the stalls. Non-squeaky Aled holds his stomach and rocks back and forth in glee. Good one! Be respectful to Jackie Weaver! Jackie Weaver has no authority here!

Cllr Brewerton notices Cllr Burkhill has now been removed too, and he’s not squeaking now – instead hissing, like the possessed young girl in The Exorcist 

‘We’re trying to have a Teams meeting, you fool,’ he rasps, regrettably off camera so whether his head rotated at the same time remained unclear.

But saintly Jackie is more than a match for such foes. With a wave of her dismissing finger, both men on Aled’s iPad vanish, joining Cllrs Tolver and Burkhill in the limbo of the waiting area.

Cllr John Smith is elected chairman and the meeting can begin. ‘Welcome to Handforth,’ he says, wearily.

‘It’s nothing if not lively,’ Mrs Weaver responds.

Lively indeed.

‘Make this a mini series on Netflix,’ one internet user demanded last night as footage swirled around the web.

The hilarious clips of the meeting were viewed thousands of times on Twitter, with people creating memes of Jackie Weaver removing councillors and jokes about standing orders.

TV presenter Richard Osman tweeted: ‘Am busily writing Jackie Weaver into the next Thursday Murder Club novel.’

‘Jackie Weaver could sort Spurs out,’ opined actor Stephen Mangan 

Broadcaster Ayesha Hazarika joked: ‘After days of rowing about patriotism & flags, can we agree that Jackie Weaver & that zoom makes us proud to be British.’

And TV’s Sue Perkins summed up the feeling of thousands, adding: ‘I will not sleep tonight until I have gone through every Jackie Weaver related tweet on the internet #jackieweaverhastheauthority’ 

Presenter Steph McGovern said: ‘But what happens next???’ It’s a tantalising question. Will there be a sequel?’