Flintshire Councillor slams “disgraceful and disgusting” colleagues in astonishing attack

A Flintshire Councillor branded fellow councillors “disgraceful and disgusting” during a meeting at County Hall in Mold on Tuesday.

Councillor Hillary Isherwood slammed her colleagues during a full council meeting to discuss the forthcoming budget and capital spending programme.

Mrs Isherwood claims the cabinet member for education Cllr Chris Bithell called her ‘fat’ during a spat over over a school closure in yesterday’s debate, which was beamed live on the councils webcast TV stream.

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No stranger to the odd verbal assault, Mrs Isherwood took the opportunity yesterday to remind the elected members of comments made in 2014 by the deputy leader of the council Cllr Attridge, he took to twitter following a heated council debate to call her her “a bitter twisted Tory” adding “Fur coat no knickers comes to mind!”

Mr Attridge has since apologised and toned down his twitter comments accordingly.

As yesterday’s debate turned to education capital budgets, the conservative elected member for Llanfynydd thanked fellow councillors for money spent on Castell Alun School, she said:

Its a wonderful school, in fact, my children have been through that school, and to be honest with so little they have done so much, thanks to to the two different heads, the staff and the Governors.

Mrs Isherwood, wife of North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood started to wind things up a little in a meeting which had been relatively calm and well mannered.

She added:

It’d be very remiss if I didn’t say I don’t thank this administration for not supporting my school in Llanfynydd (it closed in August 2016) and I do not thank this administration also and not supporting the small school in Flint mountain.

This authority is going to rue the day that they decided that these rural schools weren’t worth giving money to.

Mark my words with all the amount of extra houses, where are our small children supposed to be going to?

They’ll be in little bits of extra sheds or whatever you’d call it put onto the existing primary schools.

I think there was an awful lack of vision, as its valentines day, that’s my valentines message to the leader of the council.

A kiss is out of the question?

Chair of the meeting Cllr Peter Curtis replied: “I suppose a kiss is out of the question” in a bit of ‘light-hearted lad banter’

Responding to Mrs Isherwood, Cllr Chris Bithell claimed she only objected the closure of Ysgol Llanfynydd at the last minute:

I was very surprised when that was first muted because I heard nothing from Cllr Isherwood until the 11-hour 59th minute when she opposed, She came to me and even said the show is not over until the fat lady sings I quote. That was at the call-in meeting that was organised by scrutiny with regards to that particular closure.

WATCH IT ALL HERE:

Mrs Isherwood can be heard on the web stream loudly disagreeing with Mr Bithell

Cllr Bithell continued:

I would say this too, i would rather spend money on children education and improving their outcomes rather than subsidising surplus unfilled unwanted places”

(Jabbing a finger in the direction of Mrs Isherwood) which is where she places her priority.

Cllr Isherwood asked for a right to reply which was denied at first by Gareth Owens, Chief Officer – Governance.

The Chair overruled the decision and allowed Mrs Isherwood a right to reply at which point she let rip:

I have to say that I’m disgusted with this council, you on that side, (looking towards the council’s labour group) not all of you, some of you are truly decent people, but there are some on that side, that are disgraceful and disgusting, I have been called fur coat and no knickers by the deputy leader.

Cllr Curtis could be heard on the webcast summoning divine intervention as he muttered “Jesus”

Mrs Isherwood continued:

 Now i have the Cabinet Member for Education calling me the fat lady.

To be perfectly honest there maybe some form of fun in some of these of things, I for one have one of the best sense of humours, I really have, but if you think for one minute that this is alright to say in the chamber when there are plenty of women who work for this organisation or who wish maybe to stand for the organisation.

The Chair interrupted Cllr Isherwood saying “I gave you an opportunity to speak on the school closure, the other issue should be taken up at another place and another time”.

Mrs Isherwood said:

To say that I came in at the last minute (referring to the school closure objection) is a total lie, as for everything else the rest of it will be taken up i can assure you.

Cllr Bithell can be heard on the webcast denying he had made the ‘fat lady sings’ directly and that he was merely repeating what she had said to him at a previous meeting.

Cllr Curtis moved to close the issue saying:

I think you wasted it bit, Hillary i gave you the opportunity (right to reply) and you wasted it.

Its a bit sad, we’ve had a damn good meeting so far, to let it get to the level that we have just witnessed it’s not right, so please pull yourselves together and behave yourself.

According to Wikipedia – use of the term ‘It ain’t over till (or until) the fat lady sings’ was first used by Dallas Morning News on 10 March 1976.

Wikipedia page goes onto to say;

It is a colloquialism and has been classified as a proverb.

It means that one should not presume to know the outcome of an event which is still in progress.

More specifically, the phrase is used when a situation is (or appears to be) nearing its conclusion.

It cautions against assuming that the current state of an event is irreversible and clearly determines how or when the event will end. The phrase is most commonly used in association with organized competitions, particularly sports.