Apology demand over poultry unit comments (From Gazette & Herald)
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Apology demand over poultry unit comments made by Coun Tommy Woodward
11:14am Wednesday 29th August 2012 in News
Liberal councillor Tommy Woodward who made comments during a recent planning meeting which have resulted in a demand for an apology
COMMENTS made by a councillor during a debate on plans to allow a unit to house 30,000 hens have led to a demand for an apology.
Coun Tommy Woodward (Liberal) told Ryedale planning meeting on June 24 that he thought the broiler unit being planned by Andrew Farnell at Beech Tree House, Slingsby, represented “is farming of the worst kind”.
Mr Farnell already has two such units, where he keeps 60,000 birds, and has applied separately for a fourth.
The Gazette & Herald printed Coun Woodward’s comments in its report of the meeting and now Mr Farnell has demanded an apology from Coun Woodward.
In a letter to Anthony Winship, Ryedale District Council’s solicitor, Mr Farnell said: “I believe this is not a material planning consideration, it is a personal opinion and therefore should not have been shared with councillors in a public meeting.”
He quotes the members’ code which states councillors “should listen to the interests of all parties, including relevant advice from statutory and other professional officers, taking all relevant information into consideration, remaining objective and making decisions on merit”.
He accuses Coun Woodward of failing to show objectivity, saying: “He had a personal view which he expressed and carried through to voting.
“Coun Woodward should have been using planning legislation, documents and the officers report to make his decision, not personal opinion.”
Mr Winship informed Coun Woodward of the complaint and told him: “The remedy he seeks is as follows: Coun Woodward to receive additional planning and member code training.
“A personal apology for the comment made at the planning meeting which then appeared in the local newspaper”.
Coun Woodward told the Gazette: “I have been asked, via the council solicitor, to apologise for something I said at a recent planning meeting.
“My words were quoted in your paper dated August 1 and so I thought that your paper was the best place for my apology.”
And he has submitted the following: “The complainant, Andrew Farnell, appears to have got himself into a tizzy over my comments about his application for two new broiler sheds to house 60,000, yes 60,000 chickens.
“At that meeting I stated that broiler farming was “farming of the worst kind”.
“Therefore I wish to state that I fully regret the fact that Mr Farnell is so thin-skinned that my comments, amounting to five words, should upset him so much.
“I would also like to say that I wish he were as sensitive to the needs of the chickens in his broiler sheds as he appears to be when criticism is directed at him.
“May I repeat, broiler farming ‘is farming of the worst kind’ and I am truly sorry to have to say that, Mr Farnell”.
Comments(33)
growthorgreed
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2:58pm Thu 30 Aug 12
growthorgreed
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5:02pm Thu 30 Aug 12
baileyuk
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8:03pm Thu 30 Aug 12
twotonethomas
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9:17pm Thu 30 Aug 12
Please come back with something a little more intelligent and I will argue my point.
Peterwalker
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7:28am Fri 31 Aug 12
ne is entitled to their opinion. What is one to make of someone who,rather than standing by their convictions,hurls cheap insults whilst hiding behind an alias?
PingPop
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10:58am Fri 31 Aug 12
Tommy Woodward is of the breed from where most Councillors are born... "they are better than the general public and therefore they can abuse their position to exert their own personal prejudices".
The likes of Tommy Woodward don't give a toss about the people who vote them into power and they have absolutely no aspirations to represent their ward in a fair and impartial way, if even to represent them at all. He systematically abuses his role to run some personal crusade against animal welfare no matter how farfetched.
His entire hypocritical existence is summed up by the last planning committee meeting where he started the motion and voted in favour to approve planning permission for a pub in Low Marishes which has been masterminded by some guy who has previously appeared in court for hare coursing and whose main business is to kill maimed animals.
And before the ignorant end of society get on board and start making ridiculous comments that he is entitled to his own opinion... I will remind you that other professions leave their personal opinions at home on a daily basis. Nurses who are expected to treat patients that have assaulted them or their colleague’s moments before being a typical example. Councillors should be professional too, and never allow their personal beliefs cloud their judgement.
Tommy Woodward, you are a disgrace to Ryedale District Council and the people who voted for you in good faith.
DYLANESQ
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8:22pm Fri 31 Aug 12
DYLANESQ
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8:24pm Fri 31 Aug 12
DYLANESQ
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8:25pm Fri 31 Aug 12
DYLANESQ
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8:25pm Fri 31 Aug 12
twotonethomas
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9:07pm Fri 31 Aug 12
1) I am truly horrified to be likened to most Councillors, and though PingPop may think I am better than the general public, I would do no such thing.
2)I have never, nor would ever 'run some personal crusade against animal welfare'.
3)The fact that I moved approval of the Marishes application, disproves your whole argument!
4) I get elected because my personal opinion reflects the opinion of the voters of Pickering, that's what democracy is about. Maybe you should try standing for election next time.
5) See point 1. If I am like most Councillors, then most of us must be a disgrace to RDC :)
Peterwalker
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9:49pm Fri 31 Aug 12
baileyuk
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9:24am Sat 1 Sep 12
just point out this is not about hunting but your interpretation of the so called toff/hunter. your tunnel visoned thoughts on most topics. your right everyone else is wrong and thats that.. this is the arrogance i talk about..
twotonethomas
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10:10am Sat 1 Sep 12
Sorry, but no I don't remember ever saying all those that hunt our wildlife are toffs. I am fully aware that there are plenty of uneducated low class thugs who enjoy tormenting foxes etc. People such as the Derwent Hunt follower who was convicted of assault causing actual bodily harm to my wife.
If you want me to turn up at a hunt, feel free to send me a meet card for any of the following hunts Derwent, Sinnington, Middleton or Saltersgate. If you can't I will gladly accept them from anyone else who reads this, they can be left in my RDC pigeon hole at Ryedale House.
As for your final paragraph, which calls me arrogant because I believe that I am right. Show me someone who has a view on any subject, but at the same time believes that their view is wrong!
baileyuk
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5:50pm Sat 1 Sep 12
again through one incident you class everyone else interested in the same subject as thugs,
As for your final paragraph, which calls me arrogant because I believe that I am right. Show me someone who has a view on any subject, but at the same time believes that their view is wrong!
I have a view on most things but accept that they may be wrong or illinformed, and expect to say a simple sorry and end it there which is something you are incapable of and you ask me to be civil??
twotonethomas
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6:33pm Sat 1 Sep 12
baileyuk
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9:32pm Sat 1 Sep 12
yet another arrogant self centred statement.
twotonethomas
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9:44pm Sat 1 Sep 12
Does that mean, that in your own words, you are arrogant? I must admit you have me a little confused.
Can we just clarify two points.
Nowhere did I say that everyone who hunts is an uneducated low class thug, I said there are plenty who are.
And second, you still haven't denied that broiler farming is farming of the worst kind.
baileyuk
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9:55am Sun 2 Sep 12
broiler farming would i say its farming of the worst kind. no, i would like to say we could move onto better things and maybe keep them free range in field but then we come up against mr fox? but there is a need for this sort of farming, do you know how many of these units have recently been built in the yorkshire region this last year? I know of at least a dozen.
but then as a councillor can you explain why uk are having to farm within EU rules yet the EU itself are ignoring their own rules and no councillor/ politician is doing anything about it, yet we are importing the end product because uk cannot produce it.
dogcapp
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4:18pm Sun 2 Sep 12
twotonethomas
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4:43pm Sun 2 Sep 12
At 5.50pm yesterday you claimed that I said all those who hunt are thugs, despite my exact words being available for all to see just one post earlier.
You don't think broiler farming is that bad, fine that's your opinion, it would be nice to hear what you think is the worst kind of farming.
As for the EU, the Liberal Party would pull out, we are the only anti EU left wing party,
As we have exhausted this debate I shall now sign out as the abusive and illiterate appear to have surfaced from under their rocks. I can go to Facebook for that level of debate :)
baileyuk
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5:14pm Sun 2 Sep 12
your position for your own beliefs, and then when questions are fired at you, you either cannot remember or dissapear.
you will find an invitation in your pigeon hole, but no doubt it will stay there like other items that you have not collected.
perhaps the council should look into your comments on other topics on other forums and see the times they are added. another abuse of your position, the council should do the right thing and ask you to stand down.
everyone is entitled to their own view, however these should not be bought into a meeting and used to persusade others.
.
twotonethomas
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5:59pm Sun 2 Sep 12
Please don't invite me to a specific hunt on a specific date. As I stated earlier my wife was assaulted by a hunt thug simply because she called the hounds off a fox. I wasn't born yesterday, and unlike Daniel, will not walk into the lion's den. Leave a meet card and I'll turn up unannounced. If you aren't doing anything illegal, you have nothing to worry about.
The council can ask me to stand down if it likes but as long as the people of Pickering are happy to elect a left wing, green, radical liberal, I'll keep coming back. That's what getting elected is all about. Why don't you try it?
baileyuk
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7:07pm Sun 2 Sep 12
why do you think you will be walking into a lions den?? and what would we be doing illegal?
bye for now see you tomorrow....
dogcapp
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3:49pm Mon 3 Sep 12
Peterwalker
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4:57pm Mon 3 Sep 12
baileyuk
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7:02pm Mon 3 Sep 12
scarlettcrimson
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10:09pm Mon 3 Sep 12
Twotone Thomas, your respose to Pingpop revealed a grave misjudgement of your own standing and responsibilities as a Councillor:
1) you should be like most Councillors. Not in the way you think - democracy definitely is about celebrating difference and equality - but in the way you conduct yourself. This applies to the fact that you have, in the eyes of planning policy, treated someone unfairly due to your personal opinions. You were then given the opportunity to apologise for the misjudgement. However you chose to use this apology as a soapbox to further your point. All Councillors, and you should not consider yourself an exception this body of people, should remain objective when policy or law or the system (which it seems you dislike) requires you to do so.
2) The very fact that you finished your reply to Pingpop with the words 'maybe you should try to get elected next time' implies that you do consider your views as superior to his simply because you have worked hard to get elected. There are reasons why people become councillors, there are reasons why other people don't become councillors but it does not mean that your views or his are more or less valid because of your respective positions.
3) Like you, I am a firm believer in democracy but you forgot democracy when considering Mr. Farnell's application. You did not put your own prejudices aside when considering his case.
4) It would appear that Mr. Farnell's treatment of animals, whether ethical or not, is lawful. If the people at the pub on the Marishes do continue to fox hunt and hare course, they are acting outside the law. It would seem that you have chosen to support the 'worser' kind of animal cruelty (if there can be such a thing).
5) The fact that you moved the Marishes application but refused to support Mr. Farnell's does not prove that you act impartially. It proves the reverse: that you choose to pass application or refuse them on your own terms. For you to do this shows that you do consider yourself above the general public as you choose to stand apart from the system they are bound to.
Whilst I am in complete agreement with you that in this day and age, no human needs, nor should, do anything that puts animals under undue stress or harm, it seems that this viewpoint has clouded your judgement and revealed inconsistencies that do not befit your position. This makes you out to be a 'councillor of the worst kind'
twotonethomas
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10:31pm Fri 7 Sep 12
If I HAD to conduct myself like most councillors, I would definitely resign. Have you seen how most councillors conduct themselves? Ihave not treated anyone unfairly in the eyes of planning policy. I have treated someone unfairly in the eyes of the cry baby farmer who complained..
I do not consider myself superior to anyone. But if he isn't happy with the candidates on offer he should stand for election. There are many reasons people stand for election. Considering oneself better than others isn't one of those reasons.
No I did not put my own prejudices aside. If I had, no doubt you would be accusing me of hypocrisy see points 4 & 5 in your rant :)
ryedale anonymous
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1:07pm Tue 11 Sep 12
scarlettcrimson
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8:24pm Fri 14 Sep 12
You are in a position of responisbility which requires you to judge cases from a neutral standpoint and respect those people who may not conduct their own business in the way you feel they should. If you can't do this then yes, as you say, you should resign.
twotonethomas
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11:02pm Fri 21 Sep 12
END OF
Maltonian says...
1:33pm Wed 29 Aug 12