A council meeting descended into farce tonight as councillors argued over who should sit on a panel overseeing the redevelopment scheme in South Oxhey.

Councillors argued over the make-up of a working party that would ensure the project ran smoothly.

The panel will oversee the council's buying out of homes and businesses.

It ended up with the policy and resources committee asking for a report to explain what the new group would do.

The Conservatives were accused of trying to exclude Labour from the group  by not having a "proportionate" group. The Tories wanted a group made up of council officers. 

But Conservative councillor Paula Hiscocks was accused of “ignorance” by Cllr Phil Brading when she rejected the idea of having a smaller committee than the policy and resources committee at Three Rivers District Council.

Cllr Brading argued this would mean there would be an extraordinary policy and resources committee meeting "every ten days", adding people have other committments. 

Cllr Ty Harris, who has faced numerous calls to apologise after an independent body ruled that he should apologise for comments he made in a letter to the Watford Observer about Cllr Sarah Nelmes becoming a co-optee of Thrive Homes' board, then called for Cllr Brading to apologise and accused Cllr Ann Shaw, leader of the council, of "bad manners".

Cllrs Stephen Giles-Medhurst then also demanded a public apology from him about the comments he made to Cllr Sarah Nelmes.

The Tory representative for Oxhey Hall and Hayling maintained he did not imply that she had accepted money and threatened legal action against two councillors for suggesting he had said that.