New reports say that Jackie Weaver, the Zoom star of a viral parish council meeting, did not “have the authority” to mute and virtually eject councillors.
Ms Weaver shot to fame in February 2021 when a video of her chairing a bruising online meeting for Handforth Parish Council, now called Handforth Town Council, in Cheshire went viral.
The leaked video showed her trying to referee the chaotic gathering and sparking even more unrest when she ejected the chairman after he challenged her “authority”.
Six reports produced by an external investigator have now been published by Cheshire East Council, investigating the behaviour of councillors involved in the incident.
The reports said that while Ms Weaver’s actions were without “any formal footing in terms of appropriate process and procedure”, it was understood “why Jackie Weaver acted as she did”.
Ms Weaver emerged as the unlikely hero of the unruly meeting, which was held on December 10 in 2020 to discuss local planning and environment issues but didn’t surface until early last year.
She kicked three members out of the meeting, including the chairman, when tempers flared - prompting some to describe the car crash assembly as "British comedy gold".
Celebrities including Richard Osman and Steph McGovern were among those sharing the link to the video recording of the meeting.
The meeting was the second time chair Brian Tolver had been removed, having previously been evicted from the earlier 7pm Planning and Environment Committee.
The 7.30pm meeting began with an unseen councillor mumbling "f*** off" under their breath.
Mr Tolver then refused to recognise the legitimacy of both meetings.
He also told Ms Weaver, from the Cheshire Association of Local Councils, to "stop talking" and "you have no authority here".
In response, Ms Weaver removed Mr Tolver from the Zoom call and placed him in a virtual waiting room.
The clips were a hit with Twitter users, with thousands of retweets and likes and had also been posted on YouTube, where it had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
The six reports probing the behaviour of councillors, total 145 pages, The BBC reports.
Three reports look into complaints laid prior to the meetings while the other three look at behaviour in that meeting.
According to one, Ms Weaver was “not acting in an official capacity at these meetings".
However, it was acknowledged that Ms Weaver believed her actions were necessary, given the behaviour of some of the councillors.
"Faced with what were unusual and difficult circumstances, and the deep-seated issues underpinning those circumstances, we can understand why Jackie Weaver acted as she did, despite her action being without any formal footing in terms of appropriate process and procedure,” one report read.
Reacting to the reports, Ms Weaver said she welcomed the findings but was “deeply saddened” that it took “so long and cost so much” to get there.
She said it was still very vague as to how virtual council meetings worked.
In her opinion, she added, she had not actually removed her fellow council members from the meeting, but rather had moved them to the waiting room.
"A little later in the meeting the remaining councillors voted to remove them,” she added.
The reports also noted that three former councillors were “on the balance of probability” in some breaches of the Code of Conduct for members.
These so-called breaches referred to both long-standing issues at the council and the viral Zoom meeting.
Another report said three current councillors were not in breach of the code, although their behaviour “cannot be said to be exemplary.
The reports have been published after Cheshire East Council has decided to release them.
Due to the three councillors under investigation having resigned, there were no formal findings made, as the reports did not make it to the committee stage of the process.
The reports were published after councillors at Cheshire East Council decided to release them.
The former councillors had made a statement, claiming they did not accept the findings of the six reports and “do not recognise any of them as being valid".
The statement went on to claim the findings equated to “extreme fiction”.
The trio planned to contest the findings.
John Smith, the chairman of Handforth Town Council, congratulated Cheshire East Council legal officers for carrying out the investigation.
"Handforth Town Council is now getting on with supporting our great community, quietly and I hope, unobtrusively,” he said.
Earlier this year it was revealed that the rows have cost Cheshire East Council more than £85,000.
A council spokesman said: "While the early stages of complaint investigation are confidential, once a final investigation report has been issued, there is a strong public interest in the disclosure of findings on conduct matters regarding holders of public office.”
This was especially so when the alleged conduct was serious in nature, he said, and occurred within the public domain.
