Wedding bells fail to chime with regeneration manager’s anti-protest email

The TaxPayers’ Alliance is inviting residents and local businesses in Bridlington to gather in the town hall gardens at 12.30pm on Saturday to protest over East Riding Council’s stalled redevelopment plans for the resort.

But in an email sent to one of the organisers, John Lister, the head of Bridlington Renaissance, says the event – expected to attract about 100 people – would clash with a wedding at the venue at 1pm.

Organisers have, however, checked with a senior registrar at the town hall – and were assured the demonstration “will not cause any disruption to Saturday’s ceremonies at the town hall”, provided demonstrators have dispersed by 1.15pm. It is thought the wedding is taking place at 1.30pm.

In his email to former East Riding councillor Geoff Pickering, Mr Lister wrote: “Geoff, I presume you are aware there is a wedding at 1.00 on Saturday in the Town Hall. You are, of course, free to organise a protest but is it necessary to destroy an innocent couple’s big day.”

Commenting on the email, Andrew Allison, national grassroots co-ordinator of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s a completely inappropriate email to send out from an official account. I have come across people who have been frightened to speak out because they are being bullied and intimidated. It would be interesting to see throughout the whole regeneration process how many people have received emails like that.”

Mr Lister said of the email: “It was just a reasonable thing to point out to them. It’s information we’ve got from here, information provided with the best of intentions.”

The protest, called “Justice for Brid”, follows stinging criticism of the authority, which was forced to rethink its Bridlington Area Action Plan (AAP) last week after supermarket giant Tesco decided not to build a new store in the resort.

This would have freed its existing site for a new retail development that was a key part of the AAP, which was supposed to bring £200m of investment to the town.

The authority insists it remains committed to regenerating the town and that other elements of the AAP can still be delivered.