Members of a town council have decided to cancel face-to-face meetings with residents while security measures are reviewed.

New Romney Town Council (NRTC) announced all surgeries have been postponed until next year in wake of 'recent national events'.

This refers to the murder of Sir David Amess, an MP who was stabbed during a constituency surgery in Southend last month.

His death followed that of another MP, Jo Cox, who was shot and stabbed multiple times in 2016, just before she had been due to hold a constituency surgery.

NRTC typically holds its meetings in the Assembly Rooms in Church Approach monthly, although this was reduced to every other month during the pandemic.

But a review of security measures revealed that the venue 'fell short' in a few areas.

A statement from the council said: "We regret to inform you that the monthly councillor surgeries have been postponed until January 2022 whilst security and other issues are reviewed following recent national events."

It comes as the MP for the district, Damian Collins, also changed the way he meets constituents, and is currently only holding surgeries at his office in Folkestone, where security was tightened following Mrs Cox's death.

Mayor of New Romney, Cllr Paul Thomas said the council has a 'duty of care' to ensure meetings are carried out safely.

He also said police have twice been called to NRTC meetings twice in recent years - once when two residents refused to leave a private meeting and became abusive towards staff, and a second time when a former councillor became abusive.

Cllr Thomas explained: "Our MP, district councillors and NRTC councillors have their surgeries one after the other, at the same venue, the Assembly Rooms.

"When Damien Collins told us that he was cancelling his surgeries, pending a review of the security arrangements, we thought we should do the same.

"We reviewed the advice from the Local Government Association and our current arrangements at the Assembly Rooms falls short of these in a few areas.

"Parish and town councillors have more access to residents than the MP, as we are out in the community every day talking to people.

"We reply personally to all emails and telephone calls we receive.

"We have a council meeting approximately every week, either of Full Council or various Committees.

"As a council we have a duty of care to our councillors and need to ensure our arrangements for councillor surgeries are robust."

Cllr Thomas added: "I have to say that I feel safe at council meetings but even we have had to call the police to the council offices/council chamber on two occasions in 2019, due to concerns we had regarding the safety of our council officers.

"None of these were “terrorist” related.

"We will review the situation when the revised advice is issued and then change our arrangements to comply with the revised advice."

Mr Collins is only holding surgeries in Folkestone for the time being, but hopes to start back at all venues from next month.

He said: "I am continuing with regular face to face surgeries.

"I am hoping we will be able to start to use all venues again from next month..."

"We are following police advice and conducting a security review of all the venues we use and discussing this with the venue operators as well.

"I am hoping we will be able to start to use all venues again from next month.

"Since the murder of David Amess we have been holding surgeries at my constituency office in Folkestone which already has security measures in place."

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