Councillors have clashed over rules on a ‘non-political’ Facebook group with more than 26,000 members.
The We Love Crowthorne Village (WLCV) Facebook group is a forum for neighbours in the village and the surrounding area.
But a political clash has occurred over a deleted Facebook post, when Kari Markham, 63, who lives in the Wokingham Without area of Crowthorne, wrote a question about low attendance records by councillors.
She claimed that she was suspended from the group for posting the question.
Mrs Markham said: “I asked a bland question on WLCV: it was ‘what do residents think is an acceptable level of attendance for borough councillors?’
“It was only that, and it didn’t mention a political party.
“It got removed, and I got a three-day suspension.”
She then reached out to councillor John Edwards, who has built a public profile questioning the resettlement of people from Afghanistan at The Grange Hotel in Bracknell.
Mrs Markham said: “I know cllr Edwards has been getting the same problems, he was banned from local community pages. I was so outraged, I said, ‘I know you have this problem now, I’m getting it!’
“We’ve got no representation, being suspended smacks of censorship and suppression of democracy.
“We’re getting shoddy service from our elected representatives. That is quite important.”
Her question related to lower attendance rates for Wokingham Without ward representatives on Wokingham Borough Council.
Cllr Jordan Montgomery (Liberal Democrats, Wokingham Without), who has attended two out of the 14 meetings he was expected at since January 6.
A motion allowing his absence due to ill health was passed at the full council meeting in July.
Cllr Marc Brunel-Walker (Liberal Democrats, Wokingham Without), has attended nine of the 15 meetings he was expected at since July 1. , after posting that his family has moved to Chichester in September.
Meanwhile, cllr Seona Turtle (Conservative, Wokingham Without) has attended all seven of the meetings she was expected at since July.
Attendance records are publicly available on the Wokingham council website.
Cllr Edwards, who sits as an Independent representative for Owlsmoor on SandurstTown Council, posted in support of Mrs Markham on his Facebook page.
He wrote: “I think it’s fairly obvious that the decision to delete the post and then ban her for asking a perfectly legitimate question had nothing to do with moderation and everything to do with censorship.
“Unfortunately, this is becoming all too common, with left-wing politicians convinced of their own moral and intellectual superiority that they believe they alone should get to decide what information you are and are not allowed to see or discuss.
Cllr Brunel-Walker is a founder of WLCV, and one of two admins.
He has insisted that group rules do not allow political posts. The group is also managed by three moderators.
Cllr Brunel-Walker said: “WLCV is run by a group of people. We have rules that the members of the community wanted, and voted for. One of those is ‘no politics’. Full stop.
We allow posts from candidates during elections, we have regular pinned posts at election times to make it easy for residents to find out information.
Likewise, we allow the two MPs to post their regular weekly updates – both have been told their posts will be removed if they stop doing updates and become openly political- for example Clive Jones, the Liberal Democrat MP for Wokingham and Peter Swallow, Labour MP for Bracknell post their weekly roundups, but Peter doesn’t say “ Labour mp” .
We encourage local councillors to also post default updates about their work and activities as councillors, or share relevant non-political posts, with the same for Crowthorne Parish Council and Wokingham Without Parish Council.
Kari wasn’t banned! Her post was removed by one of the other admins for breaching the ‘no politics’ rule.”
Cllr Brunel-Walker then accused cllr Edwards of “twisting the facts to stir up anger.”
He also pointed out cllr Edwards is a Reform UK party organiser.
A screenshot supplied by Mrs Markham shows her suspension lasted until December 11.
