Dartmouth Town Council has given its support for a dog festival to be held on Coronation Park, having previously voiced its opposition.

Before the Woofstock UK dog show in August this year, South Hams District Council had asked the town council for its view of the festival. A majority of town councillor opposed the plan but the district council, which owns the park, allowed it to go on.

The issue of a whether councillors supported Woofstock UK being held on Coronation Park was put on the agenda for Monday’s full town council meeting at the request of Cllr Steve Smith.

Woofstock organisers Heather Nesbitt and Carol Bevan failed to obtain the views of councillors or a motion in support of the festival at the last month’s full town council meeting.

After this year’s show, Woofstock applied to SHDC for permission to hold the day-long festival in the park for the next three years. This was approved by the district council.

The town council, at its September meeting, said that should it take control of Coronation Park, it would honour the agreement.

At Monday’s meeting, the opinion of each councillor was requested by Cllr Smith.

Neither Cllr David Kelland nor Cllr Gina Coles offered any view of Woofstock.

Cllrs Tessa de Galleani and David Gent made no comments in favour of Woofstock but focussed instead on social media posts about councillors, following controversial comments by Cllr Coles’ reported in the Chronicle during August, and last month’s town council meeting.

Cllr Gent said: “The only comment I’d like to make is that some of the comments on social media were appalling. Everyone has a right to their opinion.”

Cllr de Galleani added: “I am extremely worried about the comments on Facebook.

“All this council was elected and they were elected by those who are now thoroughly awful. Every councillor has a right to their own opinion and they should be allowed to voice it.”

Cllr Paul Allen said it was unnecessary for the council to have a recorded vote on the isssue but gave no opinion on Woofstock UK.

Those who came out strongly in favour of the festival were Cllrs Fred Pritchard-Tagg, Maggie Baillie, Iris Pritchard, Rob Lyon and Steve Smith.

When there were no further comments from councillors, the mayor allowed John Walker, a cameraman and social media reporter to speak. He asked: “When is Gina Coles going to apologise?”

Mayor Cllr Cooke responded by banging his gavel and shouted: “Sit! Shut up! This is exactly why I do not normally accept stuff from the public because we get comments like that. I’m not accepting anymore.”

A motion in support of the dog festival was proposed by Cllr Smith. It was carried unopposed but Cllr Coles abstained.

After the meeting, Dartmouth businessman Edward Reach posted on Facebook: “Great result, demonstrates what can be achieved by speaking out and politely holding decision makers to account for their actions.”

Woofstock supporter Tracey Robb said: “That’s brilliant news, all the hard work paid off and common sense prevails. They have realised how good Woof­stockUK is for their town at last.”

And Cllr Smith posted: “Woofstock... back by popular demand, will grow bigger and better...”

Next year’s Woofstock UK festival will take place on Saturday, August 4.