Parish councillor Chrissie Phillips-Tilbury, 67, knowingly broke the law early in October. She organised a team of volunteers to weed her village of Sonning Common, despite advice from Oxford county council that acting without a “street operative licence” or “health and safety liability insurance” meant they were breaking the law. After Council budget cuts, weeds were growing “like mini hedges”. The council later retracted its advice.
Meanwhile, parish councillors Edmund Done, 67, and Michael Curtis, 72, are being prosecuted for their own nonviolent direct action in Hagworthingham, in Lincolnshire.
A faulty burglar alarm at an empty cottage was ringing at all hours, and had kept residents awake for months. All attempts to trace the owner of the cottage had failed, and the police and the council refused to take action, so Done and Curtis cut the wires of the alarm, to the applause of villagers.
A pre-trial review is set for 6 November.
Topics: Local campaigning