Why did “normal people” shun the Annual Town Meeting?

IT was a Saturday afternoon and the sun was shining. Frodsham’s broad, tree-lined Main Street looked a picture.
The car parks at Castle Park were chock-a-block and in the park itself,  people sprawled on the grass or wandered among the trees enjoying a brief glimpse of summer.
But only yards away in Castle Park House,  at the Annual Town Meeting, the main opportunity for Frodsham people to call the Town Council to account, councillors outnumbered members of the public by two to one.
One exasperated resident said: “There’s more councillors than ‘normal people'”
The question was why?
One member of the public said that after months of reports of councillors being suspended, bullying and councillors resigning, it was hardly surprising attendance was poor.
Deputy Mayor Cllr Mallie Poulson suggested that a sunny, Saturday afternoon was not the best time to hold the meeting. People would not want to spend it sitting in a room with councillors who had put the precept up.
Cllr Frank Pennington  said Frodsham had had 12 years of “bad council”. But people should not blame the present council for what had happened in the past. He believed there was now a better chance for the new council to put things right over the next four years.
Cllr Tom Reynolds said the council had spent too much time talking about highfalutin ideas without making any progress.
Chairman Cllr Judith Critchley, who only joined the council in January and was elected chairman the following month, believed there was now a greater focus and strong commitment within the council to move forward and serve Frodsham.
Resident Nick Smith said he was optimistic for the future. But he appealed to the council to “listen to the people.”
He said a lot of council  overspending had been due to “personal crusades” with the people not being consulted. He hoped spending in future would be kept in line with the budget.
But another resident said the Annual Town Meeting was one of the best kept secrets in Frodsham.
Councillors should be talking to people face-to-face – not on Facebook.
The meeting was told the council’s expenditure in the year ending at the end of March was £350,667 compared with budgeted spending of £303,500. This meant £62,028 was required from reserves to balance the budget.   But overall there had been £106,000 more income than projected and the level of reserves needed to balance the accounts was £59,000 less than projected.