PROTESTERS were forced to sit through tonight’s council meeting half naked after being asked to remove their t-shirts by Council security staff.
Prior to entering the Council chamber, Mark Sharp, Patsy Link and Sheena Walker from protest group SKIPP had been wearing tshirts emblazoned with the slogan ‘SCRAP THE CABINET.’ They alleged that they were asked to remove them by security staff, despite not wearing anything underneath, and subsequently stood through the meeting half dressed, standing at the forefront of the public gallery to face the Cabinet councillors.
Patsy was left wearing just her bra, and kept a low-cut black blazer on to barely cover her modesty.
Mark was furious, and said: “The SKIPP committee attends every full council meeting, usually wearing our “scrap the cabinet” tee shirts.
“By forcing us to remove our tshirts, without reasonable justification, in what we can only assume was an attempt to humiliate the members of the SKIPP committee, the council have shown their true colours. It seems that they are willing to go to any length to silence the public, even when it means publicly violating people’s dignity and human rights.”
The campaigners, upon having their tshirts removed, sported black gags “to highlight the lack of democracy in local government and the fact that the voice of ordinary people is ignored.” They stood at the front of the public gallery with other protestors to face the cabinet councillors who were proposing a budget that included removing the £130,000 funding from the airshow, scrapping free black bags for every resident in the borough, and raising Council Tax by 1.75%.
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s Facilities Manager, Gary Cullen said: “For safety reasons, 18 months ago, we introduced a system to prohibit people from bringing banners, placards and leaflets into the Civic Centre, after incidents where leaflets were thrown from the public gallery into the Council Chamber.
“Then, at previous Council meetings, people wearing T shirts with derogatory slogans on them, exposed these T-shirts and tried to disrupt these meetings.
“As a result, last night we advised them that they would not be allowed into public gallery wearing their slogan T shirts, so they were given a choice of either removing them or not gaining access to the meeting.”
Jack Monroe.
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