A row has erupted over banning members of the public from council meetings in Kingston. 

Community campaigner, James Giles, fears he could be prevented from attending council meetings in Kingston after two councillors complained about his “disruptive” behaviour and asked if it was possible to remove him if his behaviour continued. 

Mr Giles, a campaigner for the Kingston Independent Residents Group, discovered he could be forced to watch meetings online after submitting a subject access request to the council.

In an email exchange seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service Cllrs Sweeney and Archer wrote to the borough’s democratic services in July asking them to if it was possible to formally warn Mr Giles about his behaviour and exclude him from meetings if he continued to “disrupt” them.

They said Mr Giles “spoke over the mayor as she tried to conduct an orderly meeting,” and continued “turning on the microphone and making further comments against the mayor’s wishes,” after his allotted speaking time. 

They also accused him of “shouting” when councillors were speaking, making it difficult for them to hear each other.

The head of democratic services replied to the councillors saying  “senior management are presently reviewing the issue.”

The council have not taken any action so far.

Mr Giles denies causing a disruption and said the proposed ban was “outrageous.”

“I was merely responding to the questions asked by the members, who were asking me questions. At no point would I argue that my behaviour in any way warrants the sanction that Cllrs Sweeney and Archer want to place upon me,” he said.

“I mean it’s shocking actually, really and truly. It’s not what you would expect from elected representatives who are facing a small amount of challenge and scrutiny from a resident.”

However, Cllr Sweeney said he was not asking for anyone to be banned from a meeting. 

“It was a question to the council officers in terms of what recommendations they could suggest to address this problem. The officers have provided us with guidance from that and some of these measures will be introduced,” he said.

He added he was concerned about Mr Giles’ behaviour at full council on July 9 as “an example of people who feel it’s OK to shout and swear at the mayor. It’s not a view that I hold and it’s not a view that most of the people in Kingston would feel is the right way to go about things. 

“I think it’s the duty of everyone who decides to enter local politics to try and show a little bit of politeness and respect to everyone, even if they hold different views to you, which doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment.”

He also claimed the deputations presented by the Kingston Independent Residents Group were “frustrating” for councillors. 

“We have a very small group of individuals who were politically unsuccessful in the election […] They really are preventing the business that the council is required to get through in an evening. We’re unable to start that business sometimes until nine or ten o’clock because of all of these kind of archachic procedural interruptions on issues that are not really on what that particular meeting is about.”

“The impact when you have three or four deputations on a full council meeting is that the meetings start at eight o’clock and actually the agenda items, which can be things like the Cambridge Estate regeneration, or the budget where we have a huge problem with overspend, and various other projects, they don’t get discussed then until about 10 or 10:30pm.”

A spokesperson for Kingston Council said “a complaint was made by  councillors to the council’s monitoring officer concerning the conduct of some members of the public attending recent council meetings. No action has been taken to exclude any individual from meetings of the council but the council continues to review its arrangements to ensure that those meetings  are conducted in an appropriate and constructive manner.”