The Arts Council has suspended funding to the Poetry Society, after members passed a vote of no-confidence in the board of the society by 302-69 at an emergency general meeting in London. Meanwhile a petition has been launched to reinstate Judith Palmer as director of the society.  Leading lights who already signed it include Liz Lochhead, makar of Scotland; Gillian Clarke, national poet of Wales; Carol Ann Duffy, poet laureate; and Jo Shapcott, former President of the Poetry Society.

A spokeswoman for the Arts Council confirmed that the quarterly grant payment of £78,499 would not be paid until the society got its house in order.

Concerns have been partly addressed by the promise of the board to stand down and the appointment of an interim director. "We are hopeful that by the time the agm takes place early in September things will have progressed," a statement from the Arts Council said. "Once the society is back in compliance with the terms of its current funding agreement we will be in a position to make the delayed grant payment."

It is understood that in the absence of the Arts Council's £78,499 quarterly grant payment, the society will be eating into its limited cash reserves of around £100,000. This picture shows Poetry Society staff in happier times. It has been agreed that the current board of trustees will step down in September, with three opponents co-opted on to the board in the meantime. Friday's meeting heard about the troubles at the society, including the relationship between Judith Palmer, the society's director - pictured back row, fourth from right - who in the spring negotiated a £100,000 increase in Arts Council funding, and Fiona Sampson - pictured back row, third from left - editor of the society’s Poetry Review. The meeting was told in a statement by the board that this amounted to a dysfunctional staff relationship. The trustees’ solution, that Sampson should work more from home for three months and report directly to them, resulted in Palmer resigning and threatening legal action.

That in turn resulted in a string of other resignations from the society - and to the petition signed by more than 500 members demanding Friday's emergency general meeting. 

Here's an audio from that emergency general meeting. 

In an editorial the Guardian has said: "TS Eliot may originally have been a banker, but as a general rule mammon and the muse do not mix. Poets are impoverished outsiders; poetry derives from longing, not fulfilment. The Arts Council hopes the formation of a new board at the Poetry Society will mark a fresh start for the 'poetry sector'. This clunky language does not bode well. No self-respecting poet would be seen dead in the poetry sector."