A Dorset mayor has apologised after a town hall prankster hung pages from a local paper in toilet roll dispensers during a local council meeting last week.
Toilet roll in Lyme Regis’ Guildhall was replaced with shredded pages from the View From Lyme Regis weekly local before councillors, members of the public and staff from the paper attended a full council meeting.
The View website reported that Mayor Sally Holman apologised to editor Philip Evans, who was in the council chamber at the time, calling the stunt a “juvenile act”.
She issued a statement saying: “We were appalled when sheets from the View from Lyme Regis, cut and hung in a bundle onto the radiator as though as toilet paper, were discovered in the Guildhall toilet on the evening of the full council meeting on Wednesday 31 July. As mayor, together with town clerk John Wright , I have apologised to the editor of the paper.
“This juvenile act is disrespectful to the newspaper concerned but also reflects very badly on the town council and I sincerely hope that no-one connected with the council is implicated in any way.”
Town hall officials said the imaginative act of vandalism was “premeditated” and was carried out before the start of the meeting. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the incident and the council has launched an investigation to identify the culprit.
Evans said: “As far as I am concerned the matter has been dealt with and I am sure the council have far more important matters to deal with than spending time on what the mayor rightly described as a childish prank.”
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