A PREES woman who went viral after a video of a parish council meeting took social media by storm has said the attention the clip received was ‘completely unexpected’.

Jackie Weaver had no idea when she stood in as clerk for Handforth Parish Council’s planning and environment meeting that it would lead to bookies setting odds on her appearing on Strictly Come Dancing and I’m A Celebrity.

But that’s exactly what happened, after a video of the tempestuous meeting went viral on Twitter. It led to appearances for Jackie on Sky News and BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour.

After joining councillors on the call to host the meeting, Ms Weaver was shouted at by some members, and ejected some from the call, which took place on December 10 but exploded online last week.

She received national acclaim for remaining calm and sent members acting inappropriately to a virtual waiting room, meaning they were unable to speak in the meeting.

She believed two councillors were attempting to stop the meeting going ahead, and accused them of being “disrespectful”.

Ms Weaver said: “I think it’s amazing how it has touched on so many people’s radars. I had no idea that something so local would spread so far.

“The chairman, Brian Tolver, had suspended the clerk back in November, so they didn’t have a clerk, hence why I was asked to help cover the meeting.

“It has gained a lot more attention than I imagined any parish council meeting ever would.

“You have been able to record meetings for some time, but I’ve never seen any recorded example of three councillors, one in particular, behaving so badly – one was literally screaming at me.

“I think their behaviour was reprehensible. Fortunately I was not directly employed by Handforth, but it is difficult to imagine that they would have treated their own clerk any differently.”

Lines spoken by councillors at the meeting have been unavoidable on Twitter over the weekend, with quotes including “you have no authority here Jackie Weaver” and “read the standing orders, read them and understand them” helping to put Ms Weaver on Twitter’s trending list.

As a result, bookies were offering odds as short as 25/1 that Ms Weaver would appear on Strictly, and 14/1 that she would spend next winter munching on bugs in the I’m A Celebrity camp.

When asked on Times Radio whether she would join Strictly Come Dancing or I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Ms Weaver said: “I’m not quite sure the nation is ready for me to take part in Strictly.

“That may just be too much for people in lockdown.”

But she added: “Never say never.”

Of her ascent to fame, she added: “I became aware of it on Friday – someone emailed me to say I was trending third on Twitter.

“I thought ‘I’m sure that’s very nice, but I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about’.

“I don’t have a Twitter account, so I had no idea what it meant. I went to bed not thinking much of it, and I then woke up the following morning to my phone going bonkers and suddenly I was a very nice person who everyone seemed to want to talk to.

“It’s impossible not to notice the comedic parts of it and some people made references to Aled’s iPad which clearly had to be held up by two people.

“If you’re watching it from outside I totally understand why people may find it funny.”

Despite being able to see the funny side to the video, Ms Weaver also highlighted the serious side to the clip.

She is happy the viral video has shone a light on what council meetings could be like behind closed doors.

“The serious part about this is that this is how they behave and they may have got away with this before because pre-Covid, these meetings tend to happen in a village hall where there may be very few people there to witness it,” Ms Weaver explained.

“I think eventually some other people in the council may be so downtrodden by it that they stop even fighting it.

“What I’ve enjoyed since Friday is that it has been a latch-lifter to highlighting the serious side of it.

“Secondly, it has given us an opportunity to encourage people to get involved if they think their council isn’t working in the way it should.

“For many, this is an election year this year, so let’s push for getting people involved. There’s huge potential for something good to come out of this.”

Ms Weaver, who lives in Prees, works for the Cheshire Association of Local Councils, and often works giving advice to councils across the region.

She believes the experience has given her even better understanding of what some councillors have to experience.

“We do hear of bad behaviour at councils and we’re well-versed at giving advice and things like dealing with difficult customers,” she said.

“We are able to sit at our desks and give advice to people, but nothing prepared me personally for the level of abuse that the councillors and clerk in Handforth were experiencing.

“I feel for me doing my job, it has given me a much better understanding of, in some instances, their working environment.

“I was shocked. I’ve been doing this job for some time, but the actual level of anger and hostility, I haven’t ever experienced in my life.

“It has been an interesting experience and I feel like I have much more empathy for councillors.

“What has come out of it is the fantastic interest people seem to have suddenly in local government at town and parish council level.

“If we can capture this and make it last a little bit longer, it would be really great to see an energised interest in local councils again, that would be fabulous.”

Mr Tolver, who is one of the members that was sent to a virtual waiting room by Ms Weaver insisted after the video went viral that he had every right to be angry.

He said: “I cannot think of any other council meeting anywhere, that was taken over by an unqualified member of the public like this.

“Removing half the councillors from the meeting, denied half of the voters of the village from being represented — it was an appalling attack on their democratic rights.

“This made tensions rise, and that is why voices were raised in the second meeting.

“In the second meeting, I was trying to explain the correct procedure to this lady and say that her actions were way out of order, but she seems to have believed that she could do whatever she chose.”