HANDFORTH Parish Council held its latest Zoom meeting last night – and it descended into chaos again over abusive comments to Jackie Weaver.

Millions of Brits watched clips of the council’s previous Zoom call, which saw pandemonium break out as members traded insults and booted each other off the call.

Chairman Brian Tolver famously told Clerk Jackie Weaver she had "no authority” in the meeting before she kicked him off the call.

Vice-chairman Aled Brewerton then branded the meeting “illegal” before Clerk Jackie asked the group to elect a new chairman and he screamed at her to "read the standing orders".

The council met again on Wednesday evening – two months later – and were this time watched by more than 3,000 people on YouTube.

Members of the public joined in, jeering: "Read the standing orders, read them and understand them."

Some were smoking and drinking while another regularly played the Benny Hill Show theme tune.

Councillors addressed December's meeting, with councillor John Smith clashing with chairman Brian Tolver.

Mr Tolver said Ms Weaver had been running their December meeting "illegally" but Mr Smith said the comments made by Mr Tolver and others towards her were "abusive".

Mr Tolver replied: "I have much to dispute in what councillor Smith just said…I just don't want to bore everybody but he was wrong on just about every point he raised."

When a member of the public asked if Mr Tolver wanted to apologise, Mr Tolver asked for the person to be muted.

The meeting went on for three hours and at the end, Mr Smith said: "Hopefully next time we'll be a bit more slick about it and the events of the last couple of weeks will have faded into the distance, so only those who are really interested in the parish council are here, rather than those who just want to act the fool."

Jackie Weaver was absent for the call, having made the decision not to join.

She had told the PA news agency earlier in the day she hoped it would be "productive," adding: "I would have been perfectly happy to have been involved this evening but I don't think it's right for Handforth."

Instead, the council's usual clerk Ashley Dawson returned.

It came just hours after Cheshire East Council mayor Barry Burkhill, an independent councillor for Handforth, faced a vote of no-confidence over his role in December's meeting, which has been referred to Cheshire East Council's standards committee, Sky News reports.

The motion, proposed by Cheshire East Conservative councillor Liz Wardlaw, claimed Mr Burkhill "made no attempt to intervene as it became clear participants in that meeting were being bullied".

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