MONMOUTH'S Town Council this week met in the open air as a defiant gesture against critics who say they should do more to improve disabled access to their proceedings.
However the move appears to have backfired with disability groups saying the council should move out of its plush chambers on the third floor of the 18th century civic building.
Outspoken critic Kirsty Buckland, whose husband Tim is a town councillor and former magistrate, said: "It was a farce, contemptuous really to disabled people people many of them very distinguished who have done so much for the town.
"It was virtually impossible to hear any of the proceedings, and it came over as something of a joke."
She said her husband was planning to boycott council meetings until something sensible was done about the situation.
The town council is seeking approval from Monmouthshire County Council to install a lift in the Listed building, but critics say they should instead move their meetings downstairs to a perfectly adequate meeting room with good disabled access.
Mrs Buckland said the row had been rumbling for some time, with some councillors trying to cling on to tradition and pomp in the old chambers.
"Actually they have only been meeting there since the 1950s," she said. "And they are only a parish council when all's said and done."
Monday evening's meeting in the cloisters in Agincourt Square was chaired by deputy mayor Mandy Russell in the absence of the Mayor, Richard Bond, who is on holiday abroad.
It was decided to hold an open public meeting to thrash out the issue on September 21.
It is understood that at least one disability support group in the town is planning to take the council to court in a test case against its access facilities for the disabled.