UPDATE (11/1/22): Stop SGC in Frome? Resident Contacts Us To Expose More Frome Green Party Councillors As Conflicted

 

More Dodgy Green Party Councillors

UPDATE (11/1/22): Since we published the below article, Somerset Independents has learned that Councillor Shane Collins, who we name and expose below, has stepped down as Leader of the Green Party Group on Mendip District Council.

Councillor Michael Gay has replaced Collins as Leader of the Green councillors. Councillor Gay has only been a councillor for less than three years.

Of course, the Mendip District Council is due to be abolished soon and replaced with a single council (unitary authority).

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For some time, Somerset Independents has been trying to find out who is behind the Stop SGC (Selwood Garden Community) campaign. It has been shrouded in mystery. Names and photos of individuals rarely appear.

Somerset Independents is a campaign group. We listen to residents and campaign with residents, but because of our suspicions, we have remained cautious when it comes to Stop SGC. This article shows that we were right to be wary.

Whether the SGC development is supported by residents or not appears to be erring on the side of opposition. But how the Stop SGC is organised, and by whom, needs to be exposed.

So we continued our enquiries.

Initially, we were told that members of Extinction Rebellion were involved. We eventually confirmed that this is the case with campaigners and residents, but some of the people we spoke to were quite shy about naming names. This article explores further and exposes councillors.

We also suspected that elected members (councillors) of Mendip District Council (MDC) were also involved. We suspected the Stop SGC campaign may involve councillors that may have serious conflicts of interest - meaning that they should not be involved and/or that those conflicts of interest need to be managed to ensure due process in planning decisions and to ensure that the Nolan Principles of Public Life were followed.

And as several Mendip councillors have done, these councillors could be telling one group of residents that they were opposed to developments, but acting the opposite way when it came to voting on the Planning Board or making decisions in Cabinet. 

Until our campaign to change the Constitution of MDC was successful, MDC did not have any problem with members of the Executive being on the Planning Board, despite this being discouraged by the Local Government Association Guidance on Planning.

And we also suspected that members of Mendip's Planning Committee (which they call a Planning Board) might be involved in the Stop SGC campaign.

This article explores those councillors involved in more detail and exposes Green Party councillors in their double-dealing and having conflicts of interest.

Somerset Independents has campaigned hard for MDC's Planning to be more open and more transparent. 

After a long campaign, we succeeded in getting MDC to eventually change their Constitution. 

But are MDC's councillors and officers actually improving how Planning operates?

Are Mendip councillors now more highly-trained and more competent?

We are looking for the evidence.

And so to the the resident who contacted us recently.

If you remember, we reported on Green Party councillors on the Planning Board who had been voting through planning applications "on the nod" in their words - WITHOUT DEBATE in other words. 

Residents were alarmed that councillors had been doing this, and the Chair of the Board admonished them for not knowing. How many people's lives had they ruined by then?

The councillors were both from the Green Party: 

Councillor Helen Kay (Green Party - Frome Keyford)

Councillor Lindsay MacDougall (Green Party - Glastonbury St. Mary's Ward)

A resident has contacted us with the following:

"RE: Frome Keyford councillor dirt

These two muppets campaign against  Selwood Garden Community but one owns two buy-to-let properties (thus maintaining higher rent demand is in their commercial interest) - this is on their list of members interests, and the other has three cars and imports animal products from africa as a business. Nothing illegal, just downright hypocritical."

So we looked into it.

The two Frome Keyford councillors are the above-mentioned Councillor Helen Kay (Green Party). 

Councillor Helen Kay
(Green Party)

As mentioned, Cllr Kay sits on the Planning Board. Sure enough, Councillor Kay's register of interests shows:

This statement was made in May 2019. It also includes that Cllr Kay is a member of the National Landlord Association.

Councillor Kay's register was updated in January 2021, to say that she is also a member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the National Trust. It is also updated to show her name as Helen Kay-Kreizman. There were no other updates to say that Councillor Kay no longer has those properties.

The other Frome Keyford councillor is Councillor Shane Collins. Councillor Collins is also the Leader of the Green Party's Group of councillors at Mendip. 

Councillor Shane Collins
(Green Party)

Councillor Collins' register of interests shows the following:

This statement was made in May 2019. There is mention of two directorships here, but only one directorship further on in the register.

Councillor Collins' register of interests also shows that his "partner" owns a property in Frome. 

We saw Councillor Collins praise Extinction Rebellion and the supposed "Green Surge" on the BBC when interviewed by David Garmston, shortly after the 2019 local elections.

Councillor Collins also did not take action to dismiss Councillor Francis Hayden from the Green Group of councillors, when we notified him of Hayden's failure to pay council tax over many months (see * below and elsewhere on this website).

So our suspicions of the dodgy connections have been proved. 

We support residents in their campaigns, but not when those campaigns have dodgy connections, especially dodgy connections with councillors and discredited campaigners Extinction Rebellion.

These connections are with the Leader of the Green Party Group on Mendip - Councillor Shane Collins - and a member of the Planning Board - Councillor Helen Kay.

There are probably other connections that the public were not previously aware of, and which residents would not support. Officers of Mendip District Council should be aware of these connections, and take action to prevent conflicts of interest from influencing decisions of the Council, including Planning.

Extinction Rebellion are involved with Stop SGC, which has now become a campaign not just against Selwood Garden Community but against ALL developments in and around Frome. 

Somerset Independents has asked the question "Where Should Housing Be Built in Frome?" and supported residents in getting the answers. The answer must involve the brownfield Saxonvale but MDC can't even get that delivered.

Councillors with conflicts of interest, including being on the Planning Board, are involved with Stop SGC. Whilst we support residents in their campaigns, Stop SGC is a shady campaign with connections to councillors that have conflicts of interest. We would not be surprised to find Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors also involved - but doing so in the shadows, as they did over Easthill.

So while we are pleased that MDC has changed its Constitution on Planning, we wait to see whether MDC will make sure that Planning decisions are made correctly. And that conflicts of interest are managed properly.

And we also wait to see whether Ernst and Young (EY), MDC's External Auditors, will act on the formal objections that we have raised with them two years running. While EY have agreed with some of our objections, they have not yet taken action that has resulted in lasting change by MDC.

We will continue to work with residents and for residents, to hold Somerset's councillors and councils to account and to expose wrongdoing.

Somerset Independents

* Somerset Independents investigated and exposed another Green Party Councillor, Francis Hayden (Cranmore, Doulting and Nunney Ward), who had not paid his council tax. Councillor Hayden was unapologetic. He even bragged about his non-payment in public. 

We gave this to The Leveller newspaper who published the story. Residents were shocked. 

But Councillor Hayden's behaviour is the pattern that we are finding with Somerset's Green Party councillors.

Somerset's Green Party councillors say one thing but does another.

Green councillors voted to put up everyone's council tax but Green Party councillors - yes, we now know that ANOTHER Green Party councillor was behind with their council tax. We extracted this information from MDC after a very long battle involving the Information Commissioner's Office forcing MDC to cough up the name.

So we have three types of Green Party councillors:

1. incompetent Green Party councillors
2. Green Party councillors who don't pay council tax, and 
3. Green Party councillors who are deeply conflicted and hide their interests while telling residents. 

Green councillors voted to put up your council tax. But did not pay it themselves.