A Tower Hamlets council meeting was plunged into confusion when a member of the public started addressing the chamber in Bengali.
The man, who was presenting a petition to Wednesday evening’s meeting on preserving green spaces on a housing estate in Whitechapel, launched into a speech to councillors and the public in Bengali.
When the chamber’s speaker, Cllr Lesley Pavitt, stopped the petitioner, he said he was unable to speak English.
Town hall officers told him the council would have provided an interpreter had they been notified of the problem.
But as no notice was given, another member of the audience in the public gallery was given permission to ask the question on his behalf.
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