Double-Dippers Make Private Eye

North Yorkshire Enquirer contributors, Tim Thorne And Nigel Ward, have taken a story first published nearly six months ago to the national press for the second time in as many months.

Many of you will remember that Nigel Ward’s Expose Of Jane Kenyon’s Council expenses shenanigans made The Private Eye publication only a few weeks ago.

This time Nigel, and fellow North Yorkshire contributor Tim Thorne, have taken another story about Jane Kenyon and her colleagues at the local and County Council into the national press once again.

A situation where local Councillors accept broadband expenses off two or more Councils or publicly funded bodies was first brought to the attention of readers back in April of 2012.

Since that time, Tim, joined by fellow corruption fighter Nigel Ward, have brought us several updates on this morally bankrupt situation where Councillors receive annual payments significantly greater than the cost of a broadband package and pocket the excess as profit.

Despite being labelled as “Agitators” And “Troublemakers” by some commenters, both Tim and Nigel have written to both Scarborough Borough Council And North Yorkshire County Council, in a bid to get answers for the public in respect of this matter.

As usual, both Councils have closed ranks and offered no explanation of this situation, other than to say that the Double-Dipping Councillors are merely claiming their “entitlement”.

The Private Eye article published this week questions the morality of the double-dipping Councillors, including Jane Kenyon, of whom it reports: “Senior Tory Cllr Jane Kenyon, whose difficulty in keeping her register of interests up-to-date we reported in Eye 1318, nobly does not take Scarborough’s £255 broadband allowance – although she did claim £712.15 for IT from North Yorkshire Police Authority, which she chairs, in 2010-11, as well as NYCC’s £500.”

The Eye is also critical of Scarborough & Whitby MP Robert Goodwill, who is also renowned for making profit from the public purse. Below is the full story from Private Eye, including the quotes regarding Kenyon and Goodwill.

We wish to thank both Tim and Nigel for their efforts in bringing these stories to our screens on a weekly basis. I’m sure all our readers will join us in thanking them.

Please stayed tuned to this publication in the coming weeks, as I’m sure there’s more to come.

“Politicians who sit on more than one council in North Yorkshire have enjoyed a nice little earner in recent years by accepting IT allowances from both authorities while incurring one lot of expense.”

“North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) pays £500 a year, as part of a councillors’ basic allowance, to cover the cost of having a broadband connection at home – very generous, as it’s about four times what broadband actually costs. Meanwhile eight NYCC councillors who also sit on Scarborough Borough Council receive a handy £255 a year from that council for having Broadband at home. Senior Tory Cllr Jane Kenyon, whose difficulty in keeping her register of interests up-to-date we reported in Eye 1318, nobly does not take Scarborough’s £255 broadband allowance – although she did claim £712.15 for IT from North Yorkshire Police Authority, which she chairs, in 2010-11, as well as NYCC’s £500.”

“Responding to a campaign on a local website, Real Whitby, NYCC’s monitoring officer, Carole Dunn, states that double-dipping councillors are merely claiming their “entitlement” – so there’s no need for her to take any action. The question of whether they are morally entitled to that “entitlement” is ignored.”

“Any locals expecting Scarborough & Whitby MP Robert Goodwill to take a lead are likely to be disappointed. Back in 2000, as a member of the European parliament, he boasted that when booking flights to Brussels “we get a set fee of around £500, but if I buy a cheaper ticket, economy class for, say, £160, I can pocket the difference and, as a capitalist, also as a British Conservative, I see it as a challenge to buy cheap tickets and make some profit on the system because that is the system.” Trebles all round!

Article first posted to Real Whitby on September 19 2012.