ERYC: Addendum to PARNABY Police Complaint

ERYC: Addendum to PARNABY Police Complaint

Following Cottingham developer Peter ROBINSON’s Open Letter to Humberside Police Chief Constable Lee FREEMAN, Mr ROBINSON has since provided the Chief Constable with an up-date, also in the form of an Open Letter circulated to a large number of Councillors, MPs and media outlets:

Mr ROBINSON refers to an article in the Yorkshire Post (27/06/18) by Alexandra WOOD, revisiting the hugely controversial sale by ERYC of the 16th Hole at Bridlington (Belvedere) Golf Club, covered extensively and in some deal by the Enquirer here.

The BBC Look North report cited by Ms WOOD:

Furthermore, at least three other complainants have written to the ERYC, also widely circulated, making similarly serious allegations.

One of these complaints details the sale of a Council-owned farm sold to a buyer closely associated with the ERYC leadership, allegedly at a knock-down price ‘justified’ on grounds of the extreme unlikelihood of Planning consent for future development – consent which nevertheless materialised, despite extant covenants.

Another request for a full investigation by Humberside Police was addressed to Mr Mathew BUCKLEY, ERYC’s Monitoring Officer and Head of Legal & Democratic Services. This included allegations of widespread manipulation of the overlap of the ERYC Local Plan and its predecessor, the Beverley Borough Plan, in order to facilitate multiple lucrative development opportunities in the area to the south of Beverley. This latter complaint includes confirmation from the Information Commissioner’s Office that ERYC had been unlawfully withholding information such as may provide evidence supporting the allegations.

With so many coming forward now to point the finger at ERYC Leader Councillor Stephen PARNABY and some of his closest associates, speculation is mounting that the Leader – who has already announced his intention to stand down when the next election comes around in May 2019 – that the Leader may not return after the summer recess which begins immediately following July’s meeting of Full Council.

Tory sources in the East Riding have been expressing concern that difficulties in securing credible candidates for next May’s local elections are being exacerbated by the fact that the PARNABY allegations are simply not making their way quietly under the carpet, as previously hoped and expected.

In short, the fear is that the Party’s standing in the public perception is being steadily eroded by the water-on-stone persistence of the ROBINSON (and other) allegations and that its rehabilitation cannot be effected until the present scandal is safely tucked away in the misty past.

The Enquirer will continue to report on developments at ERYC without fear or favour and in the public interest.