IT BEGAN as a plan for a new village hall... but has now escalated into a row between residents and councillors.
In the latest instalment of the argument, Great Coates Village Council has been criticised for taking a "confrontational" stance towards the residents group which called for its abolition.
North East Lincolnshire councillors expressed concern that the parish council was not doing enough to actively engage with the Great Coates Residents Association (Grass) over the controversial village hall project.
This was one of the recommendations set out following a community governance review of the parish council, carried out last year.
But members of the policy, performance and resources scrutiny panel, described the village council's response to the recommendation as "disappointing".
In a statement provided to the panel, the parish council said it had attempted to engage with Grass prior to the governance review without success, and that repeated requests to see the group's constitution had fallen on deaf ears.
Councillor Karl Wilson (Lab, Heneage), pictured right, said: "If a group doesn't want to work with you, there's nothing that this council can do about that, but the language of the report gives me concern. It is quite confrontational and that suggests to me that the intent to engage is not actually there."
Nicola Maasdam, chairman of the village council, told the panel: "If they don't want to be involved with us we can't force them to be involved. I still hold that they are a pressure group.
"They are not a residents' association. All they have on their website are things about the village hall and how they want to stop it."
She added that a member of Grass, Steve Souter-Smith, had recently been elected onto the village council. The two remaining vacancies will be filled by co-option at the next village council meeting tonight.
But Councillor Terry Thurogood (Lab, Croft Baker) said: "Even if they are just a pressure group, that doesn't in any way diminish what they are saying."
Councillor Ray Oxby (Lab, South) added: "It's not for you to dictate the terms of the trade to Grass. I don't feel it appropriate that there should be a judgemental approach around their legitimacy."
The panel also criticised the response given to the request for the parish council to review its governance arrangements for managing large projects.
In its statement, the village council said it had only carried out one major project, which was the village hall.
Councillor Thurogood, pictured right, said: "I don't think that was the response we were looking for. We would be looking for some sort of policy or protocol on how you would handle such projects.
"Procurement, for example, was one major criticism of the village hall project."
Councillor Maasdam said: "Everything we do is done openly in public meetings. Just because there are no members of the public at the meeting doesn't mean we are not being transparent."
