Complaints have been lodged with Sandwich Town Council over an ‘inappropriate’ comment made during a meeting on October 31.
During the meeting Independent member Paul Carter raised the issue of the recent 50’s Festival organisers submitting accounts audited by themselves. He then shocked other councillors by saying: “These accounts are audited by their own people so it is a bit like asking a paedophile if he did what he did.”
Broadstairs musician Sonny West and Simon Green, who is from Deal, head up Killertone Records and organised the huge 50’s Festival in Sandwich last August.
Part of the festival included a photo exhibition at the Guildhall from the Eddie Cochran collection- some never seen in public before.
Sonny says Dover District Council, which is the local authority for Sandwich, signed off the accounts months ago and the issue is not Killertone Records or the festival but the “inappropriate” language used at the town council meeting.
He added: “Our accounts for the festival were signed off by Dover District Council. I think the deputy mayor was being overzealous . The mayor, who attended our festival, and other people at the meeting, were offended by his stance and also his particular use of language.
“His use of language in the meeting was definitely inappropriate.”
Sonny added: “We had amazing time in Sandwich and a very successful festival.”
Conservative town councillor Harry Sampson says he wants Cllr Carter to apologise and even resign over the comment, saying: “The Kent 50s Festival was a roaring success and I share their anger at being equated with an horrific sexual crime.”
He added: “I am saddened but not surprised by Cllr Carter’s behaviour. His unacceptable comment could have dangerous consequences for the Kent 50s Festival organisers. The volunteers held a great event and I hate to see them treated so shamefully. Paul should make amends, apologise and resign.
“If he does not, all Sandwich’s festivals and the local economy could suffer as a result. I’m most disgusted seeing some online have taken his remarks as gospel”
Cllr Carter said the matter has been “taken completely out of proportion by my opponents on Sandwich Town Council to discredit me.”
He added: “The simile was used in context with a long-term financial situation between Sandwich Toll Bridge Fund and a private limited company set up by Killertone Records, it was not and has never been directed at Killertone Records or any of its staff so I am amazed at any comments made in this context.
“I cannot give a comment as it is a confidential matter between the two parties.
I would like it to be known that I did not refer to Killertone Records or its staff in relation to my comment only to the financial transactions made by their separate Festival company.
“It’s a storm in a teacup, nothing more.”
Cllr Carter has been a member of the town council 2007 and is also a school governor.
Sandwich Town Council has confirmed that complaints have been received following the meeting. It is understood complaints have also been lodged with Dover District Council.
So he didn’t actually call anybody one? Might not have been the best analogy to use, but more morally outraged silliness.
Quite.
The woke brigade are up in arms again.
If this was a music festival organised by the proprietors of a music shop and it received council funding, it does beg the question as to whether the music shop (or its affiliates) profited in any way.
If, however, the festival was a ”roaring success” it will have made a profit which will surely gone back into council funds ? ? ?
Exactly. Morally outraged silliness from a town council that are a complete basket case in every way.
I was brought up with the adage “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never harm me.” Today it seems that is not true – so much unnecessary fuss made these days by a word which may supposedly offend someone. And who is that someone? Ridiculous.
I didn’t know that Sonny lives in Broadstairs. I slept on his London sofa after a gig in 1991!
I’ve been in accounting for 40 years, and comparing someone’s account to that of paedophilia is a new one for me! If I had told one of my clients that on reviewing their documents it was like a paedophile had done it, I would have been rightly sacked! He needs to go, RESIGN!
Not if you were doing Gary Glitter’s returns.
Come on!
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, I said!
D’you wanna be in my gang, my gang, my gang, D’you wanna be in my gang, Oh yeah!
Hulk Hogan did the definitive version.
Haha, love it!
Absolutely agree there is no place for that word in accounting, mr Carter is against the event and was attempting to cause embarrassment to the main sponsor, Resign immediately!
I understand what cllr Carter is trying to mean, but it is a shame that he used the terms he has by doing so he has cast aspersions on the integrity of the audit and those who have worked on the project, there is nothing to say if the audit is wrong and its been signed off as correct and proper, whilst I agree proper auditor should be used unlinked to the event this would have cost more money which would have come out of any profit if any was made, what cllr Carter has done is implicated that money is missing from the audit by is use of words,
I have checked this out.
It seems that Sandwich Council is now run by mostly Independent councillors after Conservative rule for decades, if not longer.
So there is an orchestrated barrage of complaints coming in about anything said or done by any of the Independents.(Can’t let voters realise that the Tories didn’t actually achieve much!)
Councillor Carter is one of the Independents. He raised concerns about a grant given to the organisers of a ’50’s musical weekend. He seems to have been a bit too “on the ball” about Council spending. Not a bad thing, even if the grant money had been well spent.
Comparing the cries of outraged innocence from the (Tory) councillors ,who mostly supported the musical weekend, struck Councillor Carter as being like the way that accused paedophiles tend to overreact with protestations of their own innocence when questioned.
To be honest, the usual comparison made in these circumstances would be something like ” Putting Rishi Sunak in charge of government finances is like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank!”
Anyway, even if closer inspection of the figures reveals nothing untoward has happened except some rather superficial accounting, it’s amusing to hear some people criticise a Councillor for being TOO careful with taxpayers money and accusing TORY councillors of being TOO “WOKE” when they reacted to rather colourful language.
Given that the national Tory Party is relying on their culture war to gain support, with accusations of other Parties being “too woke” by reacting to abusive language, it’s quite amusing to see them being accused of the same thing!
Actually, Sandwich Town Council is run by a quasi-political group called Sandwich Matters, originally formed by Labour candidates who were unable to be elected after many attempts until they ditched the Labour badge and called themselves “Independants”. I believe that the Tories now make up less than 25% of the council and have no influence whatsoever.
4 out of a full quota of 16 elected Sandwich Councillors are in the coalition called Sandwich Matters..4 are Conservatives, 2 Labour, 2 Lib Dems and 3 Independants. There is one vacancy..So in reply to your comment, no single faction has ‘control’, or is ‘running’ the Council.
you do talk some b*******s
if you want their meetings regularly as I do then Mr Heaven has openly admitted that everyone who isn’t Conservative are in a ‘co-alition’ to prop up the Sandwich Matters, some of whom failed to get elected nearly ten times until they pretended not to be rabid socialists.
One thing you have to know about 90% of Cllrs, MPs, and Government in general is they are self serving, incompetent, inefficient, not fit for purpose, and there insufficient to little accountability. In short, mostly morons.
So why dont you stand.
Carter Needs to go
The recording of this Meeting is available on U tube, for those who choose to fact check.One condition of the grant was that Killertone Records in conjunction with SCEA were to submit Audited Accounts. They failed to do so. This led to the debate, during which the Cllr made his comment, not as an accusation but as a simile.
What a pityfull waste of time over a silly comment. Why are people making such a fuss, just get on with the job