Having just attended my first council meeting, Malvern Hills District Council's southern area development control committee, I am totally appalled by the utter fiasco that occurred. If this was an example of democracy in action, please bring in a Stalinist district council.

The initial chairman declared that he had a prejudicial interest in some of the items and would not take part in the discussion and then proceeded to make leading statements about retrospective planning applications.

The following discussions on the removal of an awning and erection of an umbrella outside Pepper & Oz were mainly founded on personal opinion (e.g. I don't like purple), rather than consideration of the best interests of Malvern as a whole.

The stand-in chairman and committee made a total hash of the voting. They finally reached a conclusion and then during the next item decided to hold the previous vote again. A different verdict was reached and then challenged. There was then no clarification on what the final outcome was. A member of the public left in disgust, rightly calling the meeting a farce.

I hope the councillors who belong to this committee and actually turned up for the meeting, forego any expenses they may be entitled to, as they added no value to the development control process. I also suggest the council give the owners of Pepper & Oz an official apology for the whole debacle.

Andy Walker, Madresfield Road, Malvern.