EXPOSED: NOT ONCE BUT TWICE - We Reveal Green Party Mendip Councillor Francis Hayden Broke the Law and Was In Council Tax Arrears TWO YEARS IN A ROW and MONTHS Before Covid

 

Cranmore, Doulting, Nunney
Green Party Councillor Francis Hayden

UPDATE (6/5/22): Francis Hayden did not stand for the New Somerset Council. Mendip District Council will be scrapped in one year's time. Francis Hayden will not be a district councillor or unitary authority councillor.

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One Year in Arrears - but there's more...

During our investigation into Somerset district and county councillors and their arrears on council tax, Somerset Independents revealed that Green Party Mendip District Council (MDC) Councillor Francis Hayden was in arrears for many months during one financial year, 2020-21. 

We also showed that Cllr Hayden voted on items relating to Mendip council's budget, despite being disbarred (banned by the law) from doing so due to his arrears.

We also showed that Hayden failed to declare that he was in arrears at the appropriate time during the Council meeting that decided Mendip's budget.

By the time that he had mentioned it, it was too late. Hayden was required to declare his arrears under "Declarations of Interest" at the beginning of the meeting, and NOT after already voting on budget agenda items.

Without our investigations, Mendip District Council would have carried on, regardless.

We have confirmed again, in further Freedom of Information responses from MDC, that MDC were not following due governance and this includes council tax procedures. 

As with several other of our campaigns, Somerset Independents has had to challenge, and educate, one of Somerset's councils in how to govern properly. We are just volunteers, but they get paid to look after public money.

Not Just One Year and Months of Arrears... But Two Years in Arrears!

We have also now discovered, from further enquiries we've made of Mendip District Council, and information that the Council inadvertently coughed up, that Hayden was ALSO in arrears in a previous financial year too! 

This was the 2019-2020 Financial Year, which was BEFORE the Coronavirus Pandemic. 

Why is this relevant? It is particularly relevant because Councillor Hayden has claimed in public more than once, in trying to defend the indefensible, that his arrears were due to the Pandemic.

Councillor Hayden was in arrears BEFORE the Pandemic.

And DURING the Pandemic too! So his claims are untrue.

We have quotes of what Cllr Hayden told the public in trying to deflect attention away from his misdeeds and defend the indefensible. We have the evidence.

For example, Somerset Independents raised Cllr Hayden's persistent arrears on one of the Frome Facebook groups - "Frome Local". 

When challenged by a former Conservative Mendip District Councillor for Frome College Ward, Mike Rideout, with the following. Here is the exchange:

Cllr Hayden wrote:

Green Party Cllr Francis Hayden

"Obviously it's not ideal to hold back on council tax but the good thing is we saved the business (Keren's Comfort Kitchen) and now we can get on with paying our bills in full."

So instead of paying his council tax, Cllr Hayden put the business first. This is despite receiving a councillor's allowance from the public purse, as Mr Rideout correctly points out.

When we discovered the extent of his arrears on council tax, we challenged Councillor Hayden and asked him a set of questions. We suggested that he should resign.

But Councillor Hayden refused to resign. He refused to properly answer our questions, even though we extended the courtesy of a right of reply.

Worse, he gloated about his non-payment to the public, bringing Mendip District Council into further disrepute. 

Councillor Hayden thought it would be a good idea to brag to members of the public about his non-payment and that he and his wife had prioritised other spending, including on her business, before paying his council tax.

We have the evidence. 

We have the evidence from Mendip District Council and other sources. 

This is despite the fact that MDC tried to re-invent what happened. We even had to record the meetings ourselves, because Mendip DELETED the recording and also claimed that the Minutes of the meeting were accurate - which they were not.

We showed MDC that Councillor Hayden voted on council budget items at the Mendip Budget Full Council meeting, despite the law preventing him from doing so.

Councillor Hayden also failed to declare his arrears, which is another offence.

And today, we now have a copy of the email sent to all Mendip councillors by the Monitoring Officer, David Clark, laying out the gravity of failing to do the above.

As the email states, these are criminal offences.

So we've asked Mendip District Council to take the matter to Avon and Somerset Police.

We had already asked them to do that when our Leader Andrew Pope lodged a formal complaint into Councillor Hayden.

But MDC didn't take it to the Police, despite admitting that things had gone awry.

Let's see what MDC do now.

 

Meanwhile, Somerset Independents will continue to investigate Somerset's councillors over their council tax arrears - and the lies that they tell in trying to defend the indefensible.

Another Tory and Lib Dem Attack On Democracy - Two Years On From When We Formed Somerset Independents as a Campaigning Group For Residents

Our Emblem

Somerset Independents was formed in March 2020, at the beginning of the UK Government's and Somerset's councils disastrous response to the Global Covid-19 Pandemic.

It was formed as a campaign group to stand up for Somerset residents, because the Westminster parties - Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Greens and Labour - were continuing to let Somerset down.

Since then and over the last two years, some things have changed.

Since then and over the last two years, some things have stayed the same.

Our Aims have stayed the same and when we registered Somerset Independents as Somerset's only dedicated political party, the Aims were written into the Constitution that we submitted to the Electoral Commission.

These Aims were informed by what residents told us, because we are residents too.

The failings of the Westminster parties have continued.

And their latest failure is the forcing of a change to how Somerset is governed by councils. A new, illegitimate Council forced upon Somerset residents against their will.

Who is responsible, residents ask us? Chiefly it has been the Conservative Government and the Conservative councillors on Somerset County Council. 

The Government continues to be so badly led by Boris Johnson and the Somerset County Council also continues to be so badly led by the Conservative Leader of the Council David Fothergill.

These Conservatives do not stand up for Somerset residents. They let Somerset down.

And the so-called "opposition" of Liberal Democrats on the County Council and on the district councils, have been limp in their opposition.

This is because the Liberal Democrats think they can take control of the New Somerset Council at these 2022 elections.

WE HAVE BOYCOTTED THESE ELECTIONS. And we have explained why on this website and in the local media.

We are boycotting these elections because it should be Lib Dems, Tories, Greens and Labour that are held to account by Somerset residents.

To stand candidates at these elections would be to condone the actions of the Conservatives and the inaction of the Lib Dems.

Please remember that we were ready to stand candidates at the County Council elections to make it a Referendum on whether to have the New Somerset Council ... BUT THE TORY COUNTY COUNCILLORS CANCELLED THE ELECTIONS for the County Council and had their friends at Westminster force the new Council upon Somerset instead.

So when this new Council is formed, we ask you to ask the Lib Dems, Labour, Greens and especially the Tories:

1. Why did they ignore the advice of the democracy experts at De Montfort University.?They ignored Somerset residents who voted in 2007 by 82% to 18% to NOT have a unitary authority. So why now?

2. Why did they do it to Somerset when it has been such a failure in Cornwall and Wiltshire and when the West Somerset and Taunton merger was also such a failure that cost a fortune to taxpayers and was another unwanted reorganisation? 

3. Who is going to pay and how many tens (or hundreds?) of millions of pounds of taxpayers money are they going to waste, doing it?

4. What will be the bad debts inherited from the district councils? 

5. Why did they ignore the evidence from De Montfort University's experts on democracy in the FoLGIS Report? 

6. Was this just a way to fix the elections to favour the Westminster parties?

Leader of Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope, says:

Andrew Pope

"Somerset residents are asking a lot of questions, and that needs to continue, despite the attempts by the Westminster parties to ignore them. 

All Somerset residents are going to pay for this attack on democracy to gerrymander Somerset for the benefit of the Westminster parties.

Somerset residents' lives will continue to be ruined by those who put themselves and their party first, instead of residents first.

They don't intend for it to be for the benefit of Somerset residents.

That's why Somerset Independents were the ONLY campaigners who fought for a YES/NO Referendum, but the Lib Dems and Tories didn't want the proper Referendum. And Labour and the Greens were typically lazy and irrelevant.

We were ready to work cross-party and with people in no party like us, but there were insufficient allies to work with - this includes so-called independents who in Somerset seem to mostly be anything but independent - just look at the lists of Parish/Town council candidates - with some so-called independents standing as "Independent" and also standing for the Tories for the New Somerset Council!

In other campaigns, like the successful campaign that I worked on against the Solent Devolution Deal and Elected Mayor in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, there were allies who I was able to work with across the Region. But sadly, not here in Somerset. This process will probably end up with an elected Mayor, just like arch-Tory and anti-democrat Michael Heseltine wants.

There was a Referendum, but it wasn't a YES/NO Referendum - just a choice between two buckets of manure. As we told them when we spoke at their council meetings, we've got enough manure in Somerset, thanks.

It will now be even more difficult for independents to be elected to the Council, and the Westminster parties know this. They have the money - independents do not. 

This is proved by the dearth of candidates, as reported by Local Democracy Reporter Daniel Mumby.

As Mumby reports, out of 337 candidates standing in 55 divisions (2 seats in each division), just "23 standing either as independents or with no affiliation or description."

Even if ALL of these 23 candidates were elected, they would not have a majority. We will leave it to Somerset's voters to decide who to vote for, or whether to vote at all. It will be the usual low turnout.

And the vast majority of those elected will be of the usual low standard and they will continue to leave Somerset residents in the manure.

So residents should not and cannot let them ignore the Westminster parties' atrocious actions, and Somerset Independents will do what it can with its meagre resources and volunteers, to work with Somerset residents and continue to stand up for Somerset residents."

Somerton and Frome Conservative MP David Warburton Suspended and Under Investigation

 

Somerton and Frome Conservative MP David Warburton is again under investigation and has been suspended.

BBC News has reported that:

"Conservative MP David Warburton has been suspended from the parliamentary party pending an investigation into allegations about his conduct.

The claims about Mr Warburton, who sits on the backbenches, are being examined by Parliament's Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme (ICGS).

Conservative sources have told the BBC that three allegations of sexual harassment are being investigated.

Mr Warburton has been MP for Somerton and Frome since 2015."

We say again, because Warburton has been under investigation before. 

As Somerset Independents reported, Warburton was under investigation by Parliamentary standards late last year, when he along with other Somerset Tory MPs voted to ignore the corruption by Tory MP Owen Paterson, who eventually resigned his seat in disgrace.

Paterson's resignation caused a by-election in North Shropshire and the Liberal Democrats won the seat.

Leader of Somerset Independents, Andrew Pope, says:

Andrew Pope
Leader of Somerset Independents

"What will happen with David Warburton? Let's see...

Will he be forced to resign in disgrace like Tory MP Owen Paterson did?

Or will be like "naughty Tory" MP Charlie Elphicke and be found guilty of sexual harassment or potentially worse?

Or will David Warburton be banned from office like Tory Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Jonathon Seed, who is now on trial? 

Or will Warburton be exonerated, like he claimed he was when last under investigation by Parliamentary standards?

We will see what happens, and the outcome of the investigation.

I challenged David Warburton directly at the time of the Paterson affair, over his record and over conflicts of interest. Typically for him, he did not respond.

Andrew Pope Challenging David Warburton

And what Somerset residents know is that like almost all Somerset Tory MPs, David Warburton is a poor MP.

David Warburton has not represented Somerset residents.

Residents contacted us to complain about David Warburton not responding to them over long periods of time and despite what method they used to try to contact him.

So I contacted the Conservative Chief Whip Mark Spencer who refused to intervene. Here is Spencer's response to me.

Letter From Chief Whip to Andrew Pope

And instead of representing the constituents of Somerset and Frome, David Warburton has emulated Owen Paterson in using his Parliamentary privileges to represent special interests, like repeat polluters and industrial cheese-makers Wyke Farms.

Instead of standing up for Somerset residents, Warburton stood up at Prime Minister's Questions to speak up for Wyke Farms. They are a serial polluter of Somerset's environment as showed by Environment Agency records uncovered by the investigations of Somerset Independents using Freedom of Information requests. Why did he do this?

The investigation into David Warburton is further justification for Somerset Independents to be continuing its campaign for ALL council and Parliamentary candidates to have mandatory DBS (criminal records) checks before they can even be declared a valid candidate - let alone get elected to represent UK citizens.

Right now - all around Somerset, council candidates for the Tories' hated and imposed New Somerset Council are being declared to be candidates WITHOUT having had criminal records checks.

Somerset Independents is boycotting this election because it will be an illegitimate Council and will inherit bad debts, bad councillors and bad officers. And the council candidates may have criminal records but voters will not know who they are voting for.

Somerset's councillors and MPs from the Conservatives, Lib Dems, Greens and Labour don't support these checks. We've asked Somerset councillors and MPs from the Westminster parties but these parties that set the law have not changed the law to back our campaign.

They don't support the checks despite the shameful convictions of Tory MPs like Charlie Elphicke and Labour MP Claudia Webbe, and the jailing of former South Somerset Lib Dem Council Leader Ric Pallister and Lib Dem Devon County Council Leader Brian Greenslade.

Instead, some of them have told us that our campaign is not a good idea and that it should be up to the parties to check their candidates. They cannot be trusted and they've proved it time and again - including with councillors who persistently refused to pay their own council tax and who have broken the law - as proved by our investigations, and councillors who have broken the law by voting on the council budget despite being disbarred due to their arrears. Yet their councils have refused to report them to the Police or carry out DBS checks - despite asking them to do so.

These MPs and councillors continue to bring elected office into disrepute and trust in elected representatives to new and worse lows.

And all the above guilty parties show again that you cannot trust the Tories or any of the Westminster parties - Labour, Green or Lib Dems - because they put themselves and their rotten Party ahead of the people of Somerset. They don't care about Somerset residents.

Somerset Independents put Somerset residents first. They deserve better MPs and councillors."