The world of planning hearings and the pandemic realities of Zoom meetings collided in spectacular fashion in the tiny town of Handforth Parish in the United Kingdom.
It's the most viral meeting in planning history—an edit of the meeting has attracted more than 3 million views on YouTube and even CNN is reporting on the story by providing background and attempting an explanation for a "truly anarchic 80 minutes of microphone failures, flushing toilets, insurrections and outright shouting matches…"
The meeting in question: a gathering of the Handforth Parish Council Planning and Environment Committee on December 10, 2020. According to Rob Picheta, Handforth is a "quaint location in the northern English county of Cheshire." But this small town is achieving big fame, making stars of the participants, according to Picheta, "most prominently Jackie Weaver, the dogged chief officer of the Cheshire Association of Local Councils, who found fame overnight by withstanding a barrage of fury from parish councillors"
The edit of the meeting shown above was created by comedian Steve Morgan. Picheta's coverage of the story includes a play-by-play of the events recorded in the video—in case, like me, you're easily embarrassed by the outrageous behavior of others and haven't been able to sit through the whole thing yet.
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