THE FORMER Colnbrook Parish Council chairman, who stepped down, has levelled steep criticism at some of his former colleagues.

Peter Hood, who resigned following 23 years of service, attended Colnbrook with Poyle Parish Council last Tuesday as a member of the public. He launched into a prepared speech in which he claimed that the councillors who lived outside the parish were not doing enough work and accused another councillor of being ‘intimidating’.

Mr Hood said: “For some time I have been very disappointed with the performance of a number of our current councillors.

“We have four that don’t live in the parish, three of whom are nice enough people, but don’t know how our community ticks and don’t really do much at all for it.

“We have a fourth who is often very unpleasant in meetings, who refuses to follow the code of conduct, interrupts reports being made by others, insults guest speakers...and then has an unnecessary five minute rant about how nobody is going to tell him what to do.

“He appears to be attempting to intimidate others when he boasts of being a former bodyguard.”

Mr Hood then quizzed the four councillors on a variety of topics, such as if they knew the pupil sizes of local schools, to which they did not respond.

One of the councillors Mr Hood was criticising, Cllr Eddy Elum-Smith, said: “It’s nothing new, bashing councillors who live outside the parish. We’ve agreed that anyone can stand who lives within three miles of the area.

“I go through the parks picking up dog poop and rubbish – I’ve been doing that since 2016, and will continue. So to say we don’t do anything is astonishing.”

The councillor Mr Hood was accusing of being ‘intimidating’, Cllr Mick Kinane, said: “I won’t answer him – he’s beneath contempt.”

Speaking outside the meeting, Cllr Kinane dismissed the claims made against him, although he admitted there was a long-standing enmity between the two of them.