Three residents from the parish of Patrick have temporarily joined the commissioners after being selected by the Cabinet Office.

It comes after a series of resignations from the local authority following a report from the previous Tynwald Commissioner for Administration, Angela Main-Thompson.

At Monday night’s (January 8) public meeting it was announced that David Talbot, Margaret Killey and Gordon Clague would be ‘filling in’ until new members were appointed and to make sure a budget was ‘set in time’.

Mr Talbot said nominations for people to join the board will be opening later this week.

At the meeting, the only elected member of the commissioners was Henry Bridson.

The meeting was started with words of warning from the clerk, Ian Maule, who stated the meeting is being held in public but it is not a public meeting, and that 'anyone who is being disruptive would be asked to leave'. This was due to the alleged distracting behaviour of shouting during last month’s sitting.

The main topic of discussion during the meeting was the decision on what to do about Glen Rushen Road - the highway at the centre of Angela Main-Thompsons’ report.

The resignations of Geoffrey Gelling, Dr John Snelling and Richard Jones come after a Tynwald report that began as a dispute over damage to land in Patrick spilled over with one commissioner accused of using public funds to benefit himself and the authority being labelled as mismanaged.

There were calls for the report to be challenged by a petition of doleance during the meeting, after Margaret Killey said it was based on ‘hearsay’ that Commissioner X had carried out work for his and his neighbouring farmer’s benefit.

There was also a debate between Mr Bridson and Mr Maule regarding how much money was planned to be spent and whether the work carried out by the contractor was ‘authorised’ by the local authority.

It was revealed that there were no ‘formal’ contracts in place, and work individuals offered to find contractors for wasn’t run through the clerk.

Ms Killey cited other times when this had happened and said a ‘precedent’ had been set, while calling it a ‘diabolical’ way of working as a local authority.

The remedial work which is due to be carried out on Glen Rushen Road was quoted at £41,000, potentially having to be paid through the rates.

A resolution was made to meet with the Department of Infrastructure to see what could be done about the road.