Or perhaps more to the point former MP for SW Surrey Jeremy Hunt’s ‘In Touch.’ Because the latest leaflet has very little to do with Tory achievements in ‘Your Waverley.’
Just a bit of trumpet blowing for ~Our Jeremy – or what?
But there is something very worrying going on here.
Because he knows, and we know, the police know and more important the residents of Farncombe and Godalming know who was behind the campaign against the spate of anti-social behaviour that has hit the area.
You know full well that it was the frustrated residents of Farncombe & Godalming that prompted a public meeting which was hosted by Cllr Penny Rivers and Cllr Paul Follows. They hosted a session for 220 people held in Farncombe, to which you were invited, and to which you didn’t attend. You can read all about that September meeting here. It was held at a time you were ‘spending more time with your family.’And twittering to Boris Johnson saying you hoped he was having as much fun being PM as you were having not doing it. The fightback has begun to deal with anti-social behaviour – “and make Farncombe great again.”
Waverley Cllr Rosoman and Cllr Paul Follows pledged to follow up on all the actions suggested by the public and subsequently, together they convened a meeting of the council, police, schools and youth groups partnership committee to deal with the serious issues and are implementing their actions.
Mr Hunt, you put out a survey which might as well have asked if people want free money. 91% support for more visible policing…of course people want that.
So come on Jeremy, be honest, it is hardly YOUR CAMPAIGN is it really ?- So apologise to the residents of Farncombe and Godalming – for attempting to hijack THEIR campaign as your own. Because the public isn’t stupid and they have ways and means of ensuring you understand that.
The Waverley Web has begun the process of ‘Fact-Checking’ some of the literature that has been dropping through your letterboxes in recent weeks.
Having carefully read through this one, it would appear the Lib Dems have forgotten one very big achievement. It hasn’t mentioned that for the first time fo years, residents can now watch a webcast without interruption. Councillors are sitting, and have been told when to switch on their microphones and the public can actually hear the debate.
It is also very noticeable that webcasts are put up almost immediately, during the previous administration it sometimes took almost a week!
The WW applauds you. But sincerely hope that the LD eye doesn’t come off the Waverley ball due to a General Election?
Cllr Townsend – Waverley Borough Councillor for Cranleigh and Chairman of its Parish Council has today announced her resignation from the Conservative Party.
Waverley Borough and Cranleigh Parish Cllr Liz Townsend is now hand-in-hand with former MP Anne Milton in their efforts to put ~an Independent MP for the Guildford & Villages into the seat at the General Election.
It has been obvious to anyone who watches the Waverley Borough Council meetings on its webcast – sad souls that a handful of us residents are! That Cllr Elizabeth Townsend has become an increasingly independent thinker – and doer.
Like many councillors before her – her politics came with a small p – but her Dogged Determination to serve Waverley, and in particular Cranleigh residents, – came with a BIG D. Which sometimes took her out-of-step with Tory colleagues. Particularly with her concerns for the environment.
Although seemingly overlooked and undervalued by some of her own Waverley Conservative colleagues, she is highly regarded by the public and her colleagues in all the other parties. Cast your minds back to a time when Tory-controlled Waverley refused to allow her to join the influential Joint Planning Committee. A committee faced with major applications – including Dunsfold Park Garden Village a 2,600 home – development that would have a major impact on Cranleigh and its services.
So it came as no surprise to us, here at the Waverley Web that Cllr Liz Townsend has resigned to-day from the Guildford & Villages Con Assoc – to become, what perhaps she always has been – an INDEPENDENT.
As Chairman of the parish council, she single-handedly masterminded Cranleigh’s Neighbourhood Plan – a feat of enormous and time-consuming proportions, as it maps out Cranleigh’s future and underpins Waverley’s Local Plan.
She has fought tirelessly for the people of Cranleigh and beyond, cares passionately about the environment, and the effect development is having on the character of the countryside both on her own patch and on the areas of Godalming, Haslemere and ours here in Farnham. nobody shows more frustration at the loss of habitat, loss of ancient woodland, hedgerows, and TPO covered trees than Cllr Townsend. She has shown herself to represent our beleaguered town of Farnham with exactly the same fervour as her own area. There is nothing parochial in her fight for what is right for the people of Waverley. But faced with a choice of what is right for the country has prompted a once committed Tory to hand in her card.
So let’s all hope that the new Coalition Alliance that is now running ‘Your Waverley’ will recognise her immense skills, and reward her courageous stand – with more responsibility for shaping our borough over the next four years. Because there is little doubt, Waverley’s Tory Group has lost one of its best assets. We wonder what Cllr Potts will have to say now her ranks are being depleted further? Watch this space.
Councillor Paul Follows, Deputy Leader of Your Waverley said:
The cross-party administration of Waverley Borough Council is very pleased to welcome Cllr Towsend to join the governing group of (now) 35 councillors.
Cllr Townsend is known for being a hardworking, principled local councillor and will be, I am sure, an asset to the group in our ongoing work for the residents of Waverley.
It is clear that the Conservative party has in recent months shifted to the right and to a place where moderate, centrist, pro-remain and pro-environment Conservative councillors and supporters feel uncomfortable and ultimately that they have no home. Leaving a party of your own choice takes great courage and many of the group understand that position. There will always be a place for such people in the cross-party alliance whether they sit as a member of a party or as an Independent.
And when we say we want to know a little bit about them, we’re not referring to the spiel that the candidate and their team are busy spinning. Oh no! We’re talking about going the extra mile – as all good cleaners and forensic investigators do – and pulling out the sofa to see what’s lurking behind and beneath it!
And this is what our small cluster of spiders have found in their search for more information about “Offshore” Angela Richardson, the Conservative candidate for Guildford & Villages, who wants to fill Anne Milton’s shoes!
As it happens, there wasn’t much dust under Mrs Richardson’s sofa — but something potentially unpleasant was lurking under a stone in her husband’s rockery?
According to our Cranleigh Cluster, in 2009 Mr Angela Richardson – AKA Jeremy Bruce Richardson – became a member of an outfit called ‘Keepstone’, a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) formed to invest in creative selling, e.g. “of rights to a song or idea for a book.”
Under said scheme, members – like Mr Richardson – “invested” significant sums of money – much of it borrowed from Banks (not that we’re suggesting Mr Richardson had to borrow, we’ve no idea how healthy or otherwise his bank account is) – in the hope of “significant benefit.”
At the time, Limited Liability Partnerships were a popular tool for wealthy individuals – such as Gary Barlow and Chris Moyles (more of whom later) – to, well, not to put too fine a point on it, to dodge tax! That was until HMRC won a few high profile court cases against them – referred to as “Icebreaker” cases!
To cut a long story short and for those who don’t have the time or inclination to follow the link above, over their morning coffee, the Courts found in favour of HMRC who claimed the schemes where designed purely for tax avoidance purposes with most, if not all, of the ventures unlikely ever to make a profit!
In Keepstone’s case, the Limited Liability Partnership was formed in October 2006 and, therefore, one would normally expect the first financial year to end in October 2007. However, for some reason, this latter date was subsequently changed to 5 April 2007, which just happened to coincide with the end of the 2006/7 tax year. Well, it would, wouldn’t it?!
According to our researchers, Jeremy Bruce Richardson – AKA Mr Angela Richardson – was a partner in a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) called “Keepstone LLP” https://opencorporates.com/officers/194721384.
Mr Richardson’s involvement in Keepstone ended in 2015 – the year after the HMRC “Icebreaker” Court judgements. Quelle surprise!
Are we being a tad mean? After all, Mr Richardson might have been as gullible as Messrs Barlow and Moyles claim they were. And, by way of explanation, he might also claim, as they did, that he didn’t really understand what he was investing in, he just did what his accountants and financial advisors recommended …
Trouble is, unlike Messrs Barlow and Moyles, Mr Richardson was married to Angela, whose CV (see below) reads like that of a woman who knows her way around a balance sheet and a tax return:
We can’t help feeling that given Mrs Richardson’s former profession she would – or should – have recognised a tax dodge when her husband stepped – or stumbled – into one!
As we continued our search it appears Angela ran something called “Winnard Limited” from 2002-05. For we know not what? The industry code for Winnard say Industry Codes 80.42: Adult and other education.https://opencorporates.com/companies/gb/04423277
Looking at her husband’s page herehttps://opencorporates.com/officers/40022688 we can see the sidebar with “Similarly named officers” which shows a couple of other companies. We can only really match on names because that’s all that Companies House can give us (they don’t make any attempt to prove identity or match officers to a particular person).
One way to tell whether an LLP was probably used for this purpose is to look at the list of partners. In the case of Keep stone LLP, we can see a reference to“Lothbury Finance Ltd.”. This is the same “Lothbury Finance” which is called out in paragraph 47 of this judgementhttps://www.wilberforce.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/2014-UKFT-416-TC.pdfwhere HMRC is pursuing a bunch of related LLPs for their attempt to dodge tax.
