For those who cannot bear heated debates then Whittlesey Town Council may have found the perfect solution - a cuddly reminder to make sure discussions stay respectful.
A three foot high plush bear sits in the public gallery at every meeting as a reminder to everybody to keep it charitable.
Mayor David Mason said: “It’s been there for about a year as a reminder to people to be charitable. It sits with us on council meetings night. We sit around the meeting table and he sits in the public gallery.
“Discussions stay kindly is the message of the bear and it seems to have worked. It wasn’t a problem before to be fair, but it was a friendly gesture to sit the bear with us to remind everybody in the room to be charitable during debates and to continue to be charitable after the meeting too.”
The bear doesn’t have a name, but Cllr Mason said: “It has become a bit of a tradition and one I hope will remain.”
The bear wears a plaque that says: “I am the bear of Whittlesea, I have no need of a name, I will protect Whittlesea, Take me with you whenever and wherever I am needed, You will then succeed. We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed: we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed.”
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