BERKELEY Town Council has failed yet again to make adequate progress in its dealings with the town's football club.

Cllr Fraser Brown described the situation as a “disgusting disgrace” at Monday’s meeting and it is not difficult to see why.

Just when it seemed an amicable conclusion was around the next corner – as it must have done when a draft set of terms and conditions for a lease was given council approval in 2014 – the negotiations have returned to their familiar sloth-like pace.

Berkeley Town Council is a fascinating study into the failures of team work. As individuals they are all perfectly decent. As a group they are a catastrophe.

The convergence of egos that form the nine-person council reminds one of the convergence of weather elements that create a perfect storm.

Bickering and conflict relentlessly stifle progress so that projects that could be completed within months last instead for several years.

At Monday’s meeting – a three-hour-long voyage into the depths of misery – Mark Edwards of the football club walked out in a mist of frustration because the council would not bring item 28, that which concerned the football club, forward so that it could be discussed earlier.

And why would the council not do this? Because the council’s chairman Keith Palmer, after an initial 45 minutes of discussion in the public comments segment of the meeting, said he had had enough.

It is interesting that Cllr Palmer is also chairman of Berkeley Football Club.