“After several abusive messages from councillors, ex mayors and even the mayor and messages from the leader of ERYC asking me to be removed from the admin of ALL ABOUT GOOLE it seems that you don’t like it when you’re being held to account.”
That is a quote from one of the administrators of the All About Goole Facebook page, to one of the councillors, in the comments section of the post that alerted Goole and district residents to the danger that Goole hospital might close down. It is further evidence of the authoritarian, anti-democratic culture of councillors and executive in East Riding Council and Goole Town Council. One of the administrators of a popular Facebook group about the town is openly saying councillors, ex mayors and the current mayor, and the leader of East Riding Council have tried to have him removed as a moderator because they don’t like what he is saying.
One of the councillors said in the comments section of the same post “It can be a thankless task on the council, giving up your time for nothing, being shot at by mindless morons (not you) when only 1.5% of the population could even be bothered to vote for you.”
The fact that only 1.5% of the population voted for the councillor tells you firstly that the councillor has a minute mandate for taking decisions on behalf of the public. It also tells you that after 28 years of East Riding Council and Goole Town Council the public has very little faith that voting makes any difference.
Fifty plus HMOs in the town when the majority of residents don’t want them. No HMOs in Beverley and very few in any other East Riding Town. Goole residents pay the highest precept in the East Riding for the Town Council to provide services residents have already paid East Riding Council to provide, and which other towns get from ERYC (Beverley’s precept is £394,596, and they have parks and other fine facilities, for Beverley’s budget, see: https://www.beverley.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/75/2024/01/2024-2025-Precept-Sheet.pdf
The leisure centre has been closed for the best part of a year, and only very recently have there been any symptoms of work being done. Meanwhile £8.1 million was found to build the RaisE building, now used in publicity shots to give the impression that’s what all of Goole is like, but the council offices in town have been mostly closed and customer services shoved into the already intensively used library. Of the £8.1 million, £1.5m was from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and £1m from the Getting Building Fund, facilitated by the Hull and East Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (HEY LEP) – see: https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/yorkshire/news/2115376-next-phase-of-development-to-begin-on-business-centre It is not clear where the other £5.6 million came from in anything I have read.
The library is going to be moved out of the building it shares with museum and away from the town centre, despite al the protests. It looks like a strategy to reduce usage so it can be closed or de-staffed while arguing that investments have been made which didn’t pay off.
The 19th century Victoria Pleasure Grounds is being subjected to changes and increased use for which it, and the tightly packed residential area and narrow streets around it are fundamentally unsuited. It is being given a hospitality and conference venue directly competing with the social enterprise, the Courtyard, a few yards away, set up through the very hard work of local residents, thus undermining the Courtyard’s viability and endangering the valuable role it plays in our community. Real vision and commitment would have been new sporting facilities on the Junction 36 estate, with plenty of space, and good road access.
Express anything other than unquestioning support for the councillors and executive, and there is real danger you will be maligned, insulted, sidelined, pushed out of any positions you hold, maybe your business will lose contracts, or your employer will be pressurised to let you go. Given that an administrator of All About Goole has said the leader of East Riding Council asked for him to be removed as administrator, lends support to the real possibility of these dangers.
Add in the symbolic two fingers from East Riding Council (not the library staff) to surveillance law by the positioning of the sign about CCTV at the entrance to the library at shin level where the automatic doors mostly cover it up, and you see why it is unwise to trust the councillors and executive with CCTV surveillance. The danger is they will use it to harass anyone who questions what they are doing rather than detect crime, and staff are too vulnerable to stand up to them. How much crime is actually solved with the help of CCTV in Goole?
Your writer has screenshots of the posts the quotes in this update come from – in case they have been deleted.
Democracy in Goole, and indeed the whole East Riding, is on life support. And that’s before we have an elected mayor imposed on us. Let’s hope it’s not too late to save the hospital – and the NHS.