Leader heckled after telling Walsall Leather Museum campaigner to ‘shut up’ during meeting
A leather museum campaigner was told to ‘shut up’ by the leader of Walsall Council at a public meeting.
It led to heckles from the packed public gallery calling for Councillor Mike Bird to apologise.
Linda Boys, speaking at a full council meeting on Thursday night (February 26), demanded answers about the council’s plan to relocate the Walsall Leather Museum to an unconfirmed town centre location, and convert the current building on Littleton Street West into a SEND facility for Walsall College.
She called for answers over issues surrounding "inconsistencies, subsequent denial of rights for stakeholders, consultation and financial duties".
Ms Boys said: “We can’t afford to get this wrong.
"Can the council explain why the current proposal, which appears to present as a change in policy, has not been consulted upon, detail how it has complied with its asset management strategy including the required business case and options appraisal, clarify where the funding for the capital purchase and refurbishment of any new facility is contained in the capital programme and specify the associated costs, and indicate where within the proposed budget are the costs of the removals, storage, relocation, insurance of the collections, building upkeep, staffing, and the collection security, and what will be the revenue cost for those this year and the medium financial term?”
Councillor Bird said the plans are consistent with existing policies and have followed the correct governance process.
He said: “The decision was considered transparently and published on the council’s website.
“It has since been reviewed twice by the scrutiny committee who have the power to revert the decision to the council, but decided not to. They referred it back to the decision-making body, which was the cabinet.
“To be clear, this is not a change in policy, the museum cultural function will be retained and enhanced. Relocation to the town centre improves visibility, accessibility, and integrates with other cultural and regeneration activity.”
Referring to costs, he added that publishing details at this stage would be ‘inappropriate’ and could risk the council’s commercial position.
Responding to Councillor Bird, Ms Boys called on the leader to pause progress on the plans immediately and call an extraordinary meeting of full council for a decision to be made, to which he said "no".
But Councillor Bird’s feathers were ruffled when Ms Boys interrupted him as he referred to case law to defend his answer.
While pointing at Ms Boys, Councillor Bird said: “Look, the constitution says you want an answer to the question, if you don’t want it then shut up.
“The cabinet has made their decision which is constitutional and as a result it would be unlawful to go back and change that decision, so therefore the answer is no.”
