- – an “In My View” article by NIGEL WARD’s Ghost Author, attempting to track down any ‘open source’ information that may show if anyone at Potto Parish Council has any input or control, apart from ANDREW WILDE.
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I have been investigating and reporting upon the shenanigans at Potto Parish Council since my first article on 29th November 2022:
However, whilst the shenanigans in this article are attributed to the body corporate known as Potto Parish Council, the evidence shows that many of these shenanigans are actually only the views and machinations of a single individual – one ANDREW WILDE. The other members of Potto Parish Council are, in reality, permitted no view, no opinion and no input – other than tacit endorsement and unconditional support – and never, under any circumstances, granted an aopportunity to challenge or criticise ANDREW WILDE’s autonomy, and that includes the Council’s Clerk/RFO/Proper Officer – who just happens (by a singular stroke of coincidence) to be the daughter of the man in question (see https://nyenquirer.uk/potto-nepocracy-pt1/ )
The parable of the Emperor’s new clothes will be familiar to virtually every reader of the North Yorks Enquirer.
ANDREW WILDE’s total dominance and absolute control of the Council’s business, obliterating the input of every other member, was exposed by a series of Information Rights Tribunals in early 2024. It seems that Mr WILDE, masquerading under the relatively impervious umbrella of “Potto Parish Council”, tried to obstruct a member of the public’s information request by applying s.14 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (a clause of the Act exempting the Council’s obligation to respond on the ‘alleged’ grounds that the request was “vexatious”.
WILDE’s application of the s.14 exemption was not supported by a Council Resolution and therefore unlawful. Correct application of this exemption would mean that the Council would not have to provide the information requested, which in this particular request meant conceding that Potto Parish Council held not one single iota of information to suggest that Requesters of information (and subsequent Complainants) were “vexatious” or could be said to have in any way acted to cause harassment.
Mr WILDE has routinely published such false allegations about Complainants for almost a decade now, despite holding no information to support his opinion about Complainants. I am now convinced that he has an astonishing capacity for conjuring up opacity of such embarrassing proportions that he has left himself with no option but to attempt to continue avoiding answering this FOIA information (and similar) request(s), or otherwise suffer a complete loss of face, deep personal humiliation and public disgrace.
Hiding again under the auspices of “Potto Parish Council”, he (and I mean Mr WILDE personally) supplied the name on the Tribunal Application Forms as ANDREW WILDE, (not the Clerk’s name) first applied to the First-Tier Tribunal (FTT) for Permission to Appeal (PTA). His applications failed.
ANDREW WILDE then applied to the Upper Tribunal (UT) for PTA (I reported upon his failure here: https://nyenquirer.uk/potto-vexatious-unlawful/ ). Not one of these Appeals was notified in the Public Record, recorded in the Minutes or Approved by the Council. Ergo, to all intents and purposes, Mr Wilde IS Potto Parish Council. The other ‘members’ do not figure in the proceeds.
Mr WILDE also sent emails unapproved by Council to the Tribunal, see example below:
However, the published Agenda and Minutes confirm that the Council did not discuss the Appeal and did not conclude such an agreement – the members were completely silent on that subject. Mr WILDE has been inventing fictitious Council ‘agreements’. He has acted as though he – and he alone – IS the Council.
Even worse, these Minutes do not record anything about this entire series of Appeals and there is nothing in the Public Record to suggest that anyone else at the Council, including the Clerk, was ever aware of the existence of his series of failed Appeals. As I suggested in my title – Andrew Wilde IS Potto Parish Council.
I have found absolutely nothing to suggest that anyone, with the sole exception of the redoubtable Mr WILDE, in any way took part in this series of doomed Appeals. That is autocracy for you.
Mr WILDE stated, in his 25-page letter to the Tribunal, dated 21st August 2024:
- “As previously noted, PPC is made up of volunteers who wish to serve their community, there is no specialist knowledge and Councillors can only act on their best endeavours”.
Despite Mr WILDE and his colleagues having no “specialist knowledge”, he regularly denigrates, argues and complains about everybody who attempts to hold the Council to account. Not bad for an ignoramus!
Whilst each of Mr WILDE’s complaints are ill-founded, acting as though he – and he alone – IS the Council, he invariably holds forth that his failed complaints never even existed.
This Decision Notice [link] from the Information Commissioner’s Office demonstrates his ruse.
Mr WILDE, acting as if he IS Potto Parish Council, continues to embarrass his position of privilege and the residents of Potto.
How much longer can this ludicrous sham continue?
![Potto Nepocracy [Pt.2]](https://nyenquirer.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/POTTO_CANDLE-150x150.png)
![Potto: “Where’s the Money?” [Pt.4]](https://nyenquirer.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/POTTO_RECORDS-150x150.png)
