Councillor hits back at Morecambe Town Council over "vendetta" claims

A councillor says Morecambe Town Council is trying to gag him after claims of a "vendetta" against them.

Councillor Roger Cleet has accused the town council of trying to stop him from asking questions about their accounts, policies and procedures.

This came after councillors spoke out about "persistent complaints" being made to Morecambe Town Council which they said are costing the taxpayer and preventing the council from dealing with enquiries from other residents.

Morecambe Bay Independents (MBIs), Labour members and Liberal Democrats were united on the issue at the most recent meeting of the town council.

Councillor Geoff Knight, from the MBIs, described the actions of "the persistent complainant" as "a vendetta" and suggested taking out an injunction.

Morecambe Town Council will now seek advice from data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to try to bring an end to the situation.

A town council spokesperson said the "volume and/or complexity" of questions being asked by the individual concerned, "continue to place a significant strain on the council's limited resources".

The individual in question was not named at the meeting, but Beyond Radio is aware that it is Councillor Cleet, who is an independent Lancaster city councillor for Heysham North.

He has denied having a vendetta against the town council and said he "has a democratic right to ask questions".

Councillor Cleet resigned from Morecambe Town Council in 2021 due to concerns he had about the council.

Since then, he has sent numerous enquiries to the town council questioning their actions.

Beyond Radio has been copied in by Councillor Cleet on much of his correspondence to the council over the past three-and-a-half years.

In March and June 2025, he asked for permission to speak publicly at full Morecambe Town Council meetings, but the council told him he couldn't.

"Morecambe Town Council has to be open and transparent as it is funded by the public purse," he said.

At the most recent meeting of Morecambe Town Council, held on Thursday June 19 at the town hall, several councillors spoke out about the situation.

Councillor Knight (below) called for the council to seek advice from the ICO, to ask if the issue has "reached the stage of a vexatious complaint".

He said it is "taking up a great deal of resource and expense for the local taxpayer and it needs to finish".

"If one person is monopolising everything, other members of the public are having to wait many months for answers," said Councillor Claire Cozler, of Labour.

Her colleague Councillor Joanne Ainscough said: "We all know who this individual is.

"They are using every single thing they can to extract more information to use against the council."

Councillor Paul Hart, a Liberal Democrat, said: "The general public is paying for all this. (As a taxpayer) I personally don't want to pay. If we had to employ more staff (to reply to all the enquiries) that would be very expensive."

Councillors then took a vote, and agreed to seek advice from the ICO. 

In the agenda item for the meeting, a Morecambe Town Council spokesperson said: "The council remains fully committed to transparency and upholding its legal obligations under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including responding to Subject Access Requests (SARs) and cooperating with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) where appropriate.

"We take these responsibilities seriously and have recently received confirmation from the ICO that our data management practices are in line with current regulatory expectations.

"However, it is important to highlight that sometimes the volume and/or complexity of requests - particularly FOIs and SARs - continue to place a significant strain on the council's limited resources.

"Many of these requests result in no further action being taken, despite the considerable time and administrative effort required to process them.

"While we respect the public's right to request information, it is worth reflecting on the broader impact these processes have on the delivery of day-to-day services that directly benefit our communities.

"In recent weeks, the increasing burden of handling such requests has begun to disrupt normal service delivery.

"For example, the Neighbourhood Plan meeting - an important step in shaping the future of our community - had to be cancelled due to resource reallocation toward compliance with statutory information requests.

"Delays to planned operations such as this can have wider, knock-on effects for community-led development and local initiatives.

"Additionally, recent activity by third parties - has further compounded the situation.

"Council officers are now frequently required to spend substantial time investigating and correcting issues caused by external actions, diverting attention from proactive service delivery and community support.

"This escalation in demand has led to unavoidable cost implications.

"In some cases, the scale of administrative work involved may necessitate the hiring of temporary staff to fulfil statutory obligations, incurring additional unplanned expenditure from the public purse.

"These processes can take several weeks, during which time other priority work may be delayed.

"We therefore respectfully ask members of the public and interested parties to consider, wherever possible, whether informal routes of enquiry or engagement might achieve the same outcome before submitting formal FOI or SAR requests.

"This not only helps ensure that council resources remain focused on essential services, but also supports a more efficient and collaborative relationship between the council and the communities it serves.

"We also thank residents and members for their patience while the council works through the backlog."

In March, Councillor Cleet stormed out of Morecambe Town Hall in extraordinary scenes after being refused permission to speak at a meeting.

He wanted to talk to Morecambe Town Council after accusing them of breaking laws around publishing the meeting agenda on time.

But in a heated exchange with then-chair Councillor Russell Walsh, he was told he himself hadn't followed the rules about letting the council know of his wish to speak and the subject matter.

Read more: Councillor's fury after Morecambe Town Council denies request to speak - Beyond Radio

Councillor Cleet was also refused permission to speak at the meeting on June 19.

He was told this was because new council standing orders or rules, adopted in May, state that members of the public must advise the Proper Officer (Luke Trevaskis) "no later than 48 hours prior to the meeting to advise both of their wish to speak and the full content (providing a transcript if available)" and he had not done that.

He sent a copy of his intended speech to Beyond Radio. It covered several topics including why the 2023/24 and 2024/5 Internal Audits of the town council had not been published, the council's complaints policy, the state of weeds in Heysham, the denial of his requests to speak at meetings, the rejection of his request for an internal review at the council, and that Mr Trevaskis is also an officer for two other parish councils in Cheshire.

"It is everybody's democratic right to ask questions," said Councillor Cleet, in the speech.

"Morecambe Town Council consistently smokescreens FOI requests with costs to the public purse in time and expense of their officers.

"The precept paying public who reside within the boundaries of Morecambe Town Council need to know they're getting value for money."

Read more about the issues between Councillor Cleet and Morecambe Town Council here

Row between councillor and Morecambe Town Council has 'cost taxpayers thousands' - Beyond Radio

Also at the June 19 meeting, town councillors voted to accept its AGAR (Annual Governance and Accountability Return) for 2024/25.

Councillors were also told there had been a delay to the 2024/25 Internal Audit of the council.

A council spokesperson said they had submitted all relevant paperwork to Suffolk-based auditor Heelis and Lodge, but hadn't yet received their report.

By law, parish councils such as Morecambe Town Council must have an independent audit carried out on their accounts and control systems each year.

Councillors were told there was "no statutory date for the Internal Audit to be concluded by" and voted to defer the item until their next meeting in September.

Councillor Tricia Clarke, an independent, asked why the town council had recently changed internal auditors.

Mr Trevaskis said: "It's somewhat viewed upon preferably to change your auditor every few years. The (town council) finance committee agreed to source a new auditor some months ago."

At the meeting, councillors also voted by a majority to implement a new complaints policy.

The only councillor to vote against this was Martin Bottoms, a Morecambe Bay Independent (below).

Councillor Bottoms told Beyond Radio afterwards that he believed the policy "feels like we are restricting freedom of speech".

Morecambe Town Council policies can be found HERE.

Councillor Bottoms also pointed out, during the meeting, two mistakes on the agenda, which said that members of the public had until 10am on the day of the meeting to request to speak, when this has now changed to 48 hours' notice.

Also at the meeting, councillors voted in favour of a motion calling for Morecambe Town Council to lobby the Equality and Human Rights Commission consultation on the UK Supreme Court ruling in April, that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law.

The motion, proposed by Labour councillor David Whitaker, can be found in full HERE.

The council also voted in favour of objecting to revised plans for a new housing development in Torrisholme.

Morecambe Town Council had previously objected to the original plans for up to 200 homes in fields close to Powder House Lane, Russell Drive and Slyne Road, in 2024.