Crunch Vote on Weston Town Council Sanctuary Status Tomorrow

Weston Town Council will meet tomorrow night for the second of two required votes to overturn an earlier decision for Weston-super-Mare to become a “Council of Sanctuary”

The original proposal to become a Council of Sanctuary was voted in favour of at a meeting of Weston Town Council back in March of this year.

In August, Labour’s Cllr James Clayton who has been leading the campaign across the town to overturn the vote, tabled a motion at the council’s Finance & General Purpose meeting to bring the topic back for discussion again which was passed

Now a second vote will take place at a meeting of the full council tomorrow (Monday 22nd) to overturn the original vote in its entirety.

The contentious “Council of Sanctuary”, which some local residents feel did not receive sufficient public consultation has resulted in widespread misinformation on social media, often by anonymous accounts seemingly intent on stirring up hatred and fear in a town which historically has long been harmonious and peaceful on issues of race, religion and ethnicity.

In recent months there have been a number of incidents in the town which have links to anti-refugee sentiment including an attack at Loves Cafe which resulted in a broken window and racist stickers being placed on the property, which Avon & Somerset Police are investigating as a hate crime.

A significant amount of the misinformation has been propagated since the vote via the “Spotted Weston-super-Mare” Facebook group which in earlier this yearnwas taken control of under dubious circumstances by elements of the local branch of Reform including their Chairman, Oliver Louis-Hargreaves.

Mr Louis-Hargreaves was contacted for comment but Weston Independent News received no reply.

Labour’s Cllr James Clayton said; “By joining the Council of Sanctuary scheme, have binded ourselves to rules and expectations written elsewhere. It is not for an external organisation to dictate to Weston-super-Mare how we should behave or how we should demonstrate our compassion. We already know how to look after one another. We already understand what it means to be a good neighbour. Signing up to such a scheme as the Council of Sanctuary risks replacing genuine local goodwill with box-ticking and bureaucracy, and I urge councillors on all sides to support me in putting this subject to bed once and for all”