- More utterly riveting dispatches from Shufflehampton Parish Council, England. ‘My mum was on the Council, and she was a total headcase.’ MADE UP QUOTE
MEETING DATE: FRIDAY 28 JUNE 2019
THE CHAIRMAN convened the meeting at 7.30 pm.
Item 1
Cyril Keenly, the Clerk of the Parish Council, confirmed that Councillors Dean and Tomkins were suspended from the Council pending police investigation after two dead bodies were found under the floorboards at the Cow and Banjo.
Councillor Pritchard said there was no way Councillors Dean and Tomkins had brutally murdered their spouses back in 2014, buried them under the cricket pavilion and then moved the remains to a shallow grave under the pub to prevent these being found when the pavilion was knocked down for redevelopment.
The Chairman said Councillor Pritchard’s comments were interesting because none of this had been publicly reported and the bodies hadn’t been identified yet.
Councillor Pritchard suddenly seemed worried and said he needed to make a phone call, leaving the room very quickly.
Item 2
The Chairman welcomed newly-elected Councillors Gooding and Martin to the meeting. Councillor Gooding said he was looking forward to making a real difference to the people of Shufflehampton. Councillor Martin asked if this was the meeting of the Women’s Institute because she’d baked a lovely pavlova.
Item 3
The Chairman asked Councillors to declare any interests. Councillor Watterson said shouldn’t Councillors declare any murders first.
The Chairman said it was unusual for murders to be declared at a Parish Council meeting. Councillor Watterson said it was unusual for murderers to be on a Parish Council. Councillor Boothby said it was unusual for someone to think it was unusual for murderers to be on a Parish Council.
The Chairman said he didn’t want to ask Councillors to declare murders every month. Councillor Watterson said so why not declare murders quarterly.
The Clerk said this was tricky because any murders committed by Councillors in July might only be declared in September meaning the police wouldn’t know anything about them for three months. Councillor Watterson said perhaps one way around this would be for Councillors to tell the police about any murders straight away, but only declare them to the Council on a quarterly return.
Councillor Watterson asked that if Councillors had just seriously injured someone but they hadn’t died yet was there a requirement to also declare maiming.
The Chairman, gently rocking, said that he ‘gave up, he chuffing well gave up.’
Item 4
In a change to the agenda, the Chairman asked Councillors to declare any murders. No murders were declared, though two possible murders were noted as pending at the pub.
The Chairman asked Councillors to declare any interests. All Councillors declared an interest in the two possible murders.
The Chairman thanked the Council for its valuable input.
Councillor Martin declared a pavlova.
Item 5
Councillor Boothby confirmed that the Village Fete would be opened by Tom Hardy, a part-time children’s magician from Tunbridge Wells, because the famous actor Tom Hardy had pulled out due to a TV interview with Graham Norton or something.
Councillor Lathers said this was disappointing because the village had been looking forward to a celebrity opening the fete, and even if the part-time magician was an absolute genius he still wasn’t the dreamy bloke off the movies who she and her friends really fancied and would be very keen to smother in jam and lightly tickle just to start things off. Councillor Martin said if there was an invitation going spare, she’d happily bring along the jam and also a pavlova.
Councillor Boothby said that if an update on the Village Fete had to be recorded in the minutes, maybe it could be buried in bad news somewhere.
The Clerk said did Councillor Boothby mean ‘bad news’ as in Councillors maybe having killed some people under item 1.
Councillor Boothby said yes.
The Clerk said righto.
Item 6
Under ‘Any Other Business’, the dead body of Councillor Pritchard was found in the hallway outside the meeting room next to a bloodstained pick-axe.
The Clerk updated the Declaration of Murders register. Councillor Martin handed round paper plates and napkins.
The meeting ended at 8.01 pm, with police cars and a number of arrests.
copyright (c) carterbloke 2019
Minutes of previous meetings
- Meeting #1 | Meeting #2 | Meeting #3 | Meeting #4 | Meeting #5 | Meeting #6
Photo credits
- Crime scene c/o pexels.com
- Murderer c/o pixabay.com
Simon Carter 