YOU should be ashamed of yourselves.
That was the closing line of a withering attack by Penny Hunt at Studley Parish Council on Tuesday in a speech in defence of her husband Craig.
Retired Craig, a volunteer champion in the village, had earlier this summer painted over obscene graffiti on the village’s skate park, earning him a warning from the parish council not to do it again because he’d used ‘the wrong paint’.
When he was spotted on CCTV painting over more graphic graffiti at the park, the council called in the police who went round to his house, cautioned him and presented him with a bill for £277.50 for repainting.
However, Mrs Hunt said that had her husband not acted the graffiti would have been left untouched and visible to young children over the summer holidays.
At the time Mr Hunt was a volunteer for Studley in Bloom, Studley Lights, Studley Nature Reserve and the Heart of England Forest project.
However, now with a police caution hanging over him he has stopped all his volunteering.
Calls for an apology from the parish council have also been rejected by the authority.
Mrs Hunt said the issue was not so much about the kind of paint, but about power and referring to the chairman of the council, Councillor Paul Beaman, she said: “Your chairman himself admitted to Craig’s face that the council had got it wrong and offered his own apology then strangely voted against an apology the next day – block voting overruling decency I suppose.”
She also accused the council of wasting police time.
“This small matter could have been resolved with a phone call, leaving the police to deal with the real crime that is going on in the village,” she said.
Coun Beaman said the council had made its decision and as far as it was concerned, that was the end of the matter.
