Elderly villagers have overthrown a parish council of “newbies” in a row over plans to build a solar farm and hire a warden for £50,000 a year.
A by-election has been triggered in the East Sussex village of Danehill after a mass resignation at a “bloodbath” council meeting. Younger councillors have accused older villagers of being frightened of change and wanting to “retreat to the sort of England of the 1950s, of cucumber sandwiches”.
Meanwhile the older residents have set up the Friends of Danehill and Chelwood Gate, accusing Charles Critchley, former chairman of the parish council, of being an “empire-building madman”.
As well as clashing over plans to build the £2.8 million solar farm and hiring the warden, they also fought over the running of the village’s nursery school and an increase in taxes.
Mr Critchley, 45, an information security consultant, led the mass walkout after claiming that council members had been subject to personal and collective name-calling and “unsubstantiated allegations”.
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Mr Critchley said that he felt the only way to bring the community together was to disband the council so that a by-election could be held.
Mark Riminton, 59, another councillor and a business coach and management consultant, said: “I was a part-time volunteer and I am certainly not a politician.
“I was ill-prepared for the ferocity of the response on this issue. By the end we were simply worn down and tired of all the attack.”
Adeline Garman, another councillor, blamed the generation divide between the younger councillors and the older community who describe themselves as “caring parishioners”. She added that she thought she had moved into a caring community, but now believed “we don’t live in a nice community at all”.
Residents seemed unperturbed. One, who did not want to be named, said: “As long as the bins get taken and what-not, I don’t mind how much they squabble.”