PROTESTORS angry at the council's plans to remove antique lampposts from streets around the borough stormed out of a council meeting last night.

Residents from Hanwell disrupted the full meeting of Ealing Council while Councillor Jason Stacey, the leader of the council, was answering a question on the lighting, posed by Councillor Colm Costello (Con, Hobbayne).

Cllr Stacey told the packed chamber he had no intention of calling a halt to the removal of the poles.

He said it was impossible to bring them up to the required standard by renovating them while in the ground.

But, one protestor in the public gallery shouted "lies" throughout his speech, before storming out of the chamber, shouting out that he would "not sit here and listen to lies".

During the meeting Cllr Stacey also revealed he had received an email, which he told the meeting read: "If you think you are going to walk away unscathed think again. I'm going to pursue you personally."

Before the meeting more than 30 demonstrators gathered on the steps of the Town Hall in New Broadway, to vent their disappointment at the council's plan to remove the Victorian posts and put them in a newly created Heritage Quarter.