Council bosses have been labelled "blooming ridiculous" after urging members not to wear Christmas jumpers to virtual meetings.

Ahead of an extraordinary meeting of the council on Thursday, December 17, a number of councillors contacted offices to ask whether they would be allowed to wear Christmas jumpers to the meeting - the last time the whole council would convene before the 25th.

In response to the request, an email was sent out to all members urging them not to don their festive attire to the meeting as it would "not be appropriate".

The email said: "We understand some of you may be feeling in the festive mood and asked if you were able to wear your Christmas jumpers to the meeting on the 17th.

"This is considered not appropriate."

However, as a compromise, festive backdrops were created by the council's in-house design team, which members were invited to display behind themselves during the meeting - an option several councillors took up.

But one councillor, who asked not to be named, said the move was disappointing, having hoped to wear a festive pullover to the meeting.

The councillor said: "Personally I think it is blooming ridiculous to tell us what we can and can't wear - some other councillors attend meetings looking scruffy as anything. You can actually get very tasteful Christmas jumpers, I have a few myself.

"To me, there isn't really any difference between wearing a Christmas jumper and having a festive backdrop on a Zoom call.

"If somebody has had to go to the trouble to design the backdrops just to stop us wearing Christmas jumpers that seems silly to me."

However, a spokesman for Broadland Council said the email was not a ban, but simply advice, and that there would be no consequences for councillors who did opt to wear the jumpers - though none were noticeable during the meeting.

The spokesman said: "The advice was given in response to that question."

Asked why jumper were not appropriate attire, the spokesman added: "This is a business meeting where important decisions are made that affect our residents and local businesses."