An 85-year-old woman who was threatened with police at a Croydon Council meeting has spoken out about the upsetting experience.

Chair of the council’s planning committee Councillor Toni Letts threatened to call the police on Norma Herron on Thursday, September 26.

The 85-year-old shouted out that she had not had a chance to speak after a block of flats was approved on the site of a bungalow next door to her home in Shirley.

She has lived in Shirley for the past seven years, moving from Sydenham where she had lived for 40 years.

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Norma said: “I feel like I did not say or do anything to deserve that treatment.

“I am 85-years-old with a stick and I was walked out of Croydon Town Hall by security.

“I looked at them and said ‘what do you think I am going to do I can hardly walk’?

“When the councillors voted to approve the flats I stood up and said ‘excuse me I am the 85-year-old lady that lives there’ and when Toni Letts said ‘sit down madam’, I said ‘no I won’t, because I have no-one to speak for me so I am going to say my piece’.

“I think I got angry when she said ‘I am getting angry now’.

“I thought, ‘you’re angry? I am angry, it’s my home’.”

After a few minutes of back and forth, Cllr Letts decided the meeting would take a five-minute break.

“I think they should apologise, never mind my age they should not do that to anybody,” she said.

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And now her son Paul Verrico wants to see both Cllr Letts and Cllr Scott resign from their council positions.

He was on holiday in Spain when his mother attended the planning committee meeting and said if he was in the country he would have spoken on behalf of her.

He found out what happened after the meeting and says he has been with his mother since he got back from Spain on Monday.

The 56-year-old who lives nearby said: “She was distraught that the councillor treated her like that.

“She called me after the meeting in a real mess, and since then her blood pressure has been high.

“I feel that they should resign, you can’t do that in public office.”

The approved flats are made up of one three-bedroom, four two-bedroom and a single one bedroom flat in Woodmere Avenue.

He said: “It has really upset her, she lives for her plants and now she will have an enormous scheme being built which is going to be disruptive. And when it is done it is going to be blocking all the light to her garden.”

On Tuesday (October 1) Paul wrote to complain to the council on behalf of his mother and says that since then he has been told the incident would be referred to the council’s ethics committee.

Both Cllr Scott and Cllr Letts have been contacted for comment by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.