A councillor stormed out of a meeting of Tenby Town Council following a heated row over the budget this week.
But it was not the figures he was disputing; it was the way in which the meeting was being conducted.
Clr. Mike Thorne - who was experiencing his first budget since joining the council in May - objected to councillors excluding the public, including the press present, during consideration of the minutes of the council's budget meeting.
The budget itself had been discussed 'in camera' the previous week - as has been the case for the last four years - and Clr. Thorne had raised objections to it being held behind closed doors then. However, he failed to get his proposals carried and his new request this week also failed to get a seconder.
Clr. Thorne, who had sought advice from Pembrokeshire County Council's monitoring officer, claimed the council was in breach of conduct and that there was 'no special reason' why the minutes should be discussed in private.
He cited the 1960 Public Bodies (Admission to Meetings) Act that excluding the public was an exceptional act and that the norm was that the public were entitled to attend council meetings.
He said: "The exception is, according to the act, 'whenever publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest by reason of the confidential nature of the business to be transacted or for other special reasons stated in the resolution'.
"As no special reason is stated in the resolution in front of us on the agenda, it must be presumed that the thinking behind the resolution is that the business that follows, considering the minutes of last week's meeting, is of a confidential nature and publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest.
"The act does not define 'business of a confidential nature'. However, we have received guidance from the monitoring officer that assists our understanding of confidential.
"He cites: '...regional security matters, information provided by contractors in bidding for tenders, legal advice where the council is in dispute with another party... or where personal data might be disclosed'.
"None of those issues arise in our minutes of last week's meeting, nor should they arise in our discussion of the minutes as matters arising. We, therefore, in my submission, do not have the powers under the 1960 act to exclude the public as proposed, and to do so would be in breach of the code of conduct in ignoring the monitoring officer's advice, and would be turning the council into an illegal cabal.
"The suggestion that we should exclude the public because that is traditional, 'that's the way we've always done it', is not allowed for under the 1960 act."
Clr. Thorne's suggestion, however, failed to get a seconder. Instead, Clrs. Mrs. Julie Evans and Mrs. Caroline Thomas spoke in favour of council's proposal.
Clr. Mrs. Evans explained that council were proposing to exclude the public to give any members not present at the actual budget meeting the opportunity to question their colleagues on any decisions they had made.
She said that the budget contained information regarding salaries of staff which fell within the confidential remit.
"If we were depriving the public of information in their domain, I would be one of the first to speak up," she said.
"We will consider the minutes of the meeting in private, then invite the public and press back to approve the recommendation."
Clr. Mrs. Caroline Thomas said that 'from experience' this was the 'the best way to handle things' and if certain matters were reported in the press, it could be 'detrimental' to other people.
Clr. Mrs. Evans's proposal was seconded by Clr. Trevor Hallett and agreed.
The two members of the press present - there were no members of the public in attendance - were asked to leave the meeting.
Clr. Thorne said he was not staying to be part of what he called an 'illegal cabal' and withdrew from the meeting.
He asked for his vote against Clr. Evans's proposal to be recorded.
"Stalin would have been proud of this council," he added, but was asked to keep his comments to himself by the Mayor, Clr. Mrs. Sue Lane.
The seven members of the council - only one of whom had not been present at the previous week's meeting, Clr. Mrs. Sandra Williams - then considered the minutes, before resolving back into open session and continuing with the business before them.
They later confirmed the budget for 2009/10 when it arose as an agenda item and the press were then duly issued with the minutes of the budget meeting and the estimate of income and expenditure report.
What's happened in previous years?
So what's happened in previous years?
When we asked town council clerk, Mr. Andrew Davies, for clarification on how the budget had been handled before, he said: "Historically, the council used to have a sub-committee of four members that determined the budget with the clerk.
"We found that, when this committee reported to council, the other councillors who were not on the committee all wanted an input, so we decided to make this sub-committee open to all members.
"This has been common practice for the last four years.
"Holding this initial meeting in private enables the council to look at staffing, contracts etc., without having to move back and forth from public to private session during the course of the discussions.
"The recommended budget is then brought into the public domain where it can, if members so wish, be debated again before being confirmed and the precept set."