You could not make this up if you tried. But I will try.....

Due to an unfortunate fall down the stairs of Hove Town Hall on the very day of the hearing, Dawn Barnett could not attend. Instead she spent time in the hospital and the Panel had to be reconvened. All the documents had been published, the hearing was postponed by the Chair but sometime later all traces of the hearing were removed from the council web-site. A date for the reconvened hearing (Dec19th) was set a few days later, with Agenda details to follow.

When the Agenda eventually turned up on-line on Dec 11th, all documents were classified as "restricted" as it identified individuals and "the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information."

But all the papers were all in the public domain and indeed had been very commented on by Argus readers ect.....

All will be revealed on the day. The same panel will peruse the papers: Cllr Lizzie Deane (Green, St Peter’s Ward) , Cllr Ann Norman (Con, Withdean) and Cllr Christina Summers (Ind, Hollingdean).

No doubt, as Part 2 agenda moves on, the Panel will lift the restrictions and all the documents will be published, with names censored or not as the case may be. The panto-show must go on....

It had been a bit strange that the 4 complainants had been identified already (rather than censored/ redacted as is done on Planning Committee for example ) but once they had been exposed there can not be much need to maintaining any exemption..........

Certainly, the need to challenge racism is not progressed by incompetent handling of legitimate concerns by anyone, be it the campaigners or otherwise.

In the meantime, read the web site of the Jim Crow Museum http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/golliwog/

The mission of the Jim Crow Museum is to use objects of intolerance to teach tolerance and promote social justice. In sense, the hearing itself next week will teach someone a lesson...