There were extraordinary - and embarrassing - scenes when Medway councillors tried to clear the public gallery in the Corn Exchange last week.

Twice I refused to leave along with some of the public.

It delayed the council’s discussions of two confidential matters.The public has a right to know what is being discussed behind closed doors - and why listeners are being excluded from those discussions.

They publish reasons in the agenda, but that is not the same as telling people why they cannot hear how their money is being spent, or why. And there is nothing to stop them changing the reasons why they want to be secretive.

Eventually the Chief Executive, Neil Davies, sorted out the impasse, and advised the mayor to formally announce it was because the council was to discuss the financial affairs of another person.

However, the individual was not named.

The public was eventually allowed back into the meeting to hear the councillors vote along party lines .Then it immediately happened again when the council tried to debate the way it has lost eight financial claims against a national contractor who widened the A228 on the Hoo pensinula.

On this occasion councillors were eventually advised to go into private session because they might discuss evidence in a future court action and another unnamed person’s financial affairs were being discussed.

Both debates involved the transport portfolioholder, Cllr Phil Filmer (Con).It is not the first time I have refused to walk out when told to by councillors. Earlier this year I refused to leave an audit committee meeting discussing the housing debacle because councillors were trying , I believe, to clear the meeting illegally.

Then there was the debate over Cllr Filmer’s recommendation to buy the Medway Tunnel for a pound and collect a £3.6 million once-and-for-all payment from the Medway Bridge Trust.

The money is to cover its future maintenance, currently running at over £1 million a year.The 12-year-old tunnel has been troubled by leaks, still has its original computer system running its safety features (spares are bought through Ebay), and only has a 120 year design life.The council now becomes responsible for replacing it in the future.

How the council is going to pay to maintain and keep the tunnel safe is interesting. It has wiped out its assets, and Cllr Filmer is hoping the government will now become responsibility for it. But there are no guarantees.