Uproar over Stourport remark at Bewdley gypsy site meeting

Wyre Forest District Council chairman, Stephen Clee, caused uproar at the public consultation into a council shortlist of possible traveller-gypsy sites, when he tried to stop people shouting out by referring to the nearby town.

The 140-strong crowd at Bewdley High School heckled but the Conservative councillor said his comment was taken the wrong way and he did not mean anything derogatory by it.

Paul Simmonds, who was at the meeting, said: “People were calling out and it was not the order [Stephen Clee] would have preferred, so he stood up and said something like ‘I am not having people standing up and shouting, we are not like that lot in Stourport.’

“The whole place went up. People were saying ‘You can’t say that – you’ve just insulted the whole of Stourport.’ He wasn’t taken aback at all. He carried on until a lady stood up and said he should apologise, which he did.”

Mr Clee said his words were: “Calm down, stop shouting we are in Bewdley now, not Stourport.”He explained: “I was referring to the distance between Stourport and Bewdley. I meant ‘Stourport is next door, we are in Bewdley now so we don’t need to shout’.”

He added: “When you’ve got an irate audience I can understand how things get misconstrued. It completely wasn’t meant in a derogatory manner.”

Mr Simmonds, who works in Stourport, said the incident was “childish” and it had knocked his confidence on how the whole matter of gypsy and traveller sites would be handled.

Mr Clee, however, said the meeting which discussed the possible site at Stourport Road, was a success.He added: “We had some very constructive comments made by people with local knowledge who came forward to make statements.

“There were three representatives from the Romany and gypsy community and they support that particular site being used for a 15-pitch travellers’ permanent site. Obviously, over 90 per cent were against that but they gave them the respect to listen.”