HUNGRY councillors, heckling, a perceived ban on the public and the beginnings of an Occupy movement featured as well as the typical items of business on the agenda at Brent’s full council meeting.

Monday’s meeting at Brent Civic Centre in Engineers Way, Wembley, was disrupted following heckling from the public during an eventful evening.

Councillors were due to discuss changes to the council tax support scheme and campaigners who wanted to highlight issues with the written report took their seat in the council chamber following a protest outside the building.

Campaigners wanted to be allowed to speak out on the matter but this had been blocked by councillors prior to the meeting.

A motion to suspend the rules so the campaigners could talk was voted down by the majority Labour group, whose members had been on a day-long hunger strike to highlight food banks.

Martin Francis, who attended the meeting, said: “This would have avoided the subsequent disturbances.

“The fact that Brent’s council tax scheme asks for more from the poor than all but one of the other London boroughs speaks for itself.

“So does the figure of more than 3,000 people summonsed by Brent Council for non payment.

“There is a strong feeling that councillors are not representing those residents and in the end the disruption was the only way to give them a voice.”

Chairman, the Mayor of Brent, Councillor Bobby Thomas, asked several of the audience to be removed by security personnel after heckling began from the public gallery.

The meeting was then adjourned and councillors left the room, as is permitted by the constitution in the case of a disturbance.

Councillors reconvened the meeting in the grand hall downstairs and members of the public claim they were stopped from entering the room – though the council said afterwards the meeting continued in an open session.

Campaigners held their own so-called People’s Assembly in the now-empty council chamber but were ejected by security staff.

Robin Sivapalan, part of the campaign by Unite Community, Brent Housing Action and Kilburn Unemployed Workers’ Union, said: “The important thing is the lack of scrutiny, and there wasn’t any on that report.

“It shows the council is in no way accountable to anyone at the moment.

“It was a pretty sad indictment of the Labour group and their respect for democracy.”

Councillor James Deneslow (Labour), the council’s lead member for customers and citizens, said: “We need to get the system right.

“Some people shouldn’t be allowed to ruin it for others. Some weren’t able to attend the meeting afterwards and that wasn’t our finest moment.

“I think we need to look at changes, not of ways to prevent people coming, but to encourage people to come to meetings.

“I think we do more than most on a transparent way of working.”

Brent Council senior lawyer Fiona Alderman said: “Regrettably, last night’s council meeting was suspended in the conference room at the civic centre because of disruption by a small number of protesters. To ensure the democratic process of Brent Council could continue the meeting was reconvened in another room and after a short delay the meeting continued to deal with the business before it.”

The changes to the council tax support scheme were approved by the full council.