A parish council was branded “completely dysfunctional” and its chairman a “pound shop Boris Johnson” by furious members of the public.

At a heated Moresby Parish Council meeting on Monday night, frustrated residents again called on the authority’s chairman and clerk to resign after a pond was created by two councillors without planning permission.

Councillors Kyle and Ian Thornley, who dug up the land in the hope of draining water from the nearby allotments, were booed by members of the public as they left half-way through the meeting.

Chairman Nick Troughton later considered closing the meeting and told residents they would have to leave if they kept causing a disruption.

One resident put to Cllr Troughton that he had turned up late to the last meeting because he had been having a private conversation with the Thornleys and asked what they had been talking about.

At this point, parish clerk Chris Shaw muttered: “Tell him to f*** off.”

There were then loud shouts of “resign”, “get out” and “that’s a disgrace”, from members of the public.

Cllr Troughton asked residents to “calm down” and “stop shouting”.

One man then shouted, “You’re like Boris Johnson, riddling. A pound shop Boris Johnson.”

Another man said: “This parish council is completely dysfunctional. There’s no point in a meeting with you two in charge.”

Mr Shaw said: “I know you’re all very upset about the flooding issue and the pond is causing a lot of grief. There are a lot of items on this agenda that we need to deal with.”

Another member of the public asked when the pond was going to be fenced off and flotation devices would be installed.

He said: “At the last meeting you were asked for flotation devices. That was a month ago. There’s nothing happened. It hasn’t been fenced off to make it safe for the kids. It’s direct to a playground.”

Councillors agreed to write a letter to councillors Ian and Kyle Thornley, and request a fence be erected around the pond, at their expense, until the hole is filled back in.

At the end of the meeting, Mr Shaw walked over to a member of the public and said: “I apologise for swearing at you. I shouldn’t have.”

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