No apology from former Littlehampton mayor for ‘rubbishing’ crops

Mrs Bowyer was accused of stating that the exhibits were “a load of rubbish” by show manager Alan Humphrey. Demanding an apology, he claimed she had made the comment at a community resources meeting earlier in June.

“We, the Town Show volunteers, find this statement inaccurate and disrespectful to the people who grew and staged these exhibits that were of excellent quality, and certainly would take prizes at some of the other shows in the area,” Mr Humphrey said during the public forum.

Mrs Bowyer was not at Thursday’s meeting, but she told the Gazette on Monday: “I’m not going to apologise. The standard of some of the vegetables was not very good. I didn’t say it was rubbish.

“I qualified it by saying it was down to the lack of rain last year. I had an allotment myself last year, so I know what it was like.”

Mr Humphrey also criticised Mrs Bowyer for a comment she made about the approximately 70 people who voted unanimously at the annual town meeting in April to ask the town council to reconsider its decision to move the Town Show to August from 2013.

Mrs Bowyer, he said, had stated their views did not matter as the town’s population was more than 20,000.

“I found this comment discourteous. Councillor Bowyer should retract this statement and apologise to those people who took the time to attend the annual town meeting,” said Mr Humphrey.

Mrs Bowyer said this week: “I wasn’t at the town meeting, but I understand a lot of the people there were allotment holders who turned up to support the Town Show.

“I’m not dismissing their opinions, but we have to look at the views of all the people of Littlehampton.”