RESIDENTS were left baffled by a vote on a motion of no confidence at a town meeting on Monday night.

The meeting, held at the Community Hall, in Heritage Way, descended into chaos after Mark Heel, of Burrish Street, submitted two motions of no confidence in councillors who had backed the scheme to demolish the lido.

Before the vote was taken, another resident, Alan Davis, of Riverside Road, spoke against the motions and pointed out that they were not legally binding anyway. Mayor Anne Taft (Con-Droitwich South East) asked residents to vote for or against the motions but the crowd, of around 100 Spa folk, did not know whether she meant to vote that they had confidence or not in councillors who had voted to see the lido demolished.

Town clerk Diane Malley said: "Mark Heel had put his questions for the meeting forward in the form of a motion. It is usual for motions to be voted for in the form of 'for' or 'against'.

"The Mayor quite correctly read the motions out and asked those in favour to raise their hands. However, the residents requested the vote be put in the form of a 'yes' or 'no' vote and therefore the motions were again put to the meeting requesting raised hands to' yes' then 'no'. There were 101 votes for 'no' to the question and no votes to 'yes'.

"It has since become apparent that a proportion of those who did vote 'no' were voting 'no to the motion' i.e. 'against it', and not 'no to the question'. It is therefore not possible to know the true outcome of the vote."