Newly elected member of Onchan Commissioners sworn in

It was one of a number of matters dealt with at the public meeting last night

Onchan Commissioners met last night to discuss a number of issues affecting the village.

These included the swearing of its new member, the appointment of new roles and whether the local authority should carry on with meeting its MHKs once a quarter.

A new member of the board was sworn in following an uncontested by-election at the beginning of the month.

Andrew Gibson joined the local authority after the resignation of former commissioner John Hamilton and will now serve for the next four years.

The board also chose Mr Gibson to be the new Lead Member for Environmental and Technical Services as well as the new representative on the Eastern Civic Amenity Site joint committee.

He took the position after Commissioner David Quirk resigned from the posts at the previous public meeting.

During the meeting Mr Quirk raised a point that two of his questions hadn’t been included in the agenda despite being submitted and accepted by the clerk.

He also requested a document, which said ‘private and confidential’ be released to the public.

Mr Quirk said his questions were in relation to a letter sent to a resident about cutting back their hedges, which they felt was ‘threatening’.

Chair Anthony Allen told Mr Quirk his questions had been replied to in private, and he didn’t want to ‘embarrass’ him as the answers were already in the public domain.

Mr Quirk accused Mr Allen of asking officers to send letters out on his behalf and questioned why Clerk Ross Phillips hadn’t replied to his emails.

The clerk said he didn’t reply and felt he was being ‘dragged’ into a debate which made him ‘feel stupid’ and made the authority ‘look stupid’.

He added that the debate shouldn’t be ‘playing out’ in the public meeting.

Mr Allen said the commissioners need to be ‘mindful’ that the officers are ‘very busy’ and their time shouldn’t be ‘wasted’.

Also on the agenda was a debate about whether or not to hold quarterly meetings with the two MHKs for the area.

Mr Allen said that as two members of the board are civil servants they’re not allowed to be in the meetings due to regulations.

It was taken to a vote and it was agreed by four votes to three to cease holding them and instead contact the representatives directly if there is an issue.

Onchan Commissioners will next meet on Monday 11 August.