Letter: Council plan to claw back Futurist costs

Cllr Bastiman has said that the council will be taking steps to recover in full their costs in fighting the Save the Futurist supporters in court as those costs were borne by the council tax payer.
Futurist TheatreFuturist Theatre
Futurist Theatre

In other words, the council took advantage of taxpayer money to accomplish their determined goal of demolition of the Futurist. Supporters of the theatre collected thousands of signatures from people local, national and beyond, who wanted to save it. Those petitions were received by the council and summarily dumped by them with total disregard. The council then fought the will of the people in court, using taxpayer money. They ‘won’ because the supporters did not have the same financial advantage as the council; they could not use taxpayer money, therefore they could not afford to fight the council. The electorate will usually lose when councils fight us with our money.

So, they used our money to fight us, got their way, and are now taking steps to recover ‘their’ costs - taxpayer money; or as I see it, double-dipping from the public, the supporters, the taxpayer.

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They need the money, of course, to put towards the £4 million (which I dispute) for the first stages of their ‘conditional’ agreements with their favoured developer for the cleared Futurist site.

Daphne Barr

Scarborough