OVERTON parish councillor Brian Langer has made an impassioned plea to fellow councillors to work together for the good of the village.

He told of his concerns that meetings were turning into 'soap operas' due to the constant arguing and backbiting, adding good behaviour 'has not been one of the council's strong points'.

"All 12 of us have the same status as far as the law is concerned and a bit of extra humility wouldn't go amiss," he said. "I fear this council is becoming a soap opera and the public come to see who will have the next bust-up."

In recent months, passions have run high on a number of occasions when discussing certain issues within the village and personal insults are frequently traded across the room.

Cllr Langer has suggested a number of ways to create a better atmosphere, including a sub-committee to resolve code of conduct issues, disclosing political intentions if using material discussed for other business and encouraging parish representatives to speak from the public area when representing third party organisations.

He said: "This council is not good at keeping its mouth shut when others are told by the chair to speak. Until the chair tells that person to sit down within the two minutes everyone else should do the decent thing and wait for that person to say what they want to say.

"We've had a fairly turbulent past few months and we haven't got off to the best of starts. I do not want to endure another 93 meetings along the vein of the past few months, as we are not dealing with a lot of the issues that the electorate wants us to deal with. It takes up so much time that I wonder what's the point of turning out."

Vice-chairman Cllr Paul Green endorsed Cllr Langer's views and agreed everyone must work together for themselves and the village.

He said: "We did anticipate the first couple of meetings would have problems but I like to think we're all sensible enough to follow what we've said."

Council chairman Cllr Sarah Mills added: "It would be a shame if it had to become so formal because we could not maintain enough self-discipline."