| MIKE CUDDY - LABOUR
PARTY POLITICAL DONATION 2008
In our research, we can only find two records of political
donations by the Cuddy Group or one of its directors. Both to
the Neath MP, Peter Hain in the Labour stronghold of
Neath.
The following donation of £10,000 was recorded as
Mr Mike Cuddy, of Vale of Glamorgan personal donation. (Registered 11 January 2008).*
Cuddy lived in Cowbridge, Vale of Glamorgan at
the time, however the company of which he was managing director
and the majority of his developments and business interests took
place in Neath-Port Talbot. Logical reasoning would suggest that
the donation must be considered a business one as opposed to a
personal one due to the geographical nature of Cuddy's residence
in the Vale of Glamorgan and his business interests in
Neath-Port Talbot.
It is also recorded that the Cuddy Group
donated £1500 to Peter Hain after Mr Hain was pictured
presenting Mike Cuddy with an award for the production of an
internal Health & Safety document which according to the
parliamentary critque website order-order.com was "essentially
an office manual written by a junior in human resources."****
The donation was one of several which Mr Hain, now Lord Hain
failed to declare. A total of £103,000 went undeclared within
the proper timeframe and so the undeclared donations were
referred to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and the
Crown Prosecution Service. About this affair, the parliamentary
commissioner for standards John Lyon stated in his report:
"This is a case of an experienced member, a cabinet minister at the time, failing in his duty as a member of parliament to register donations within the time required by the
house."**
At about the same time the Cuddy Group and its subsiduary
companies were involved in several developments in the Labour
controlled Neath-Port Talbot Council including one at Heol y
Glyn, Glynneath.
This site is now owned by Enzo Homes and planning permission
for continuation of the development has recently been granted.
Talking about the Cuddy period of ownership at a recent planning
committee meeting, a local resident suggested that the Cuddy
Group used the development as a front for its asbestos removal
and demolition business, they followed on by stating that
"for every £1000 that the Cuddy Group spent on development
planning, then they earned £10,000 on tipping other peoples
waste". There is no record of the Cuddy housing development
branch Primrose Homes ever building a property during their
entire existence.
The timing of Cuddy's donation, believed to be sometime in
2007 was followed in 2008 with a planning application by the
Cuddy Group in Mr Hain's Labour stronghold constituency of Neath
at the development in Glynneath. Information supplied with the
plans provided evidence of an excessive amount of toxic
chemicals in the soil including the grade 1 classified
carcinogens Arsenic and Benzo[a]pyrene. The plans containing
this information were eventually withdrawn without reason and
lodged in the planning department archives of the Labour held
Neath Port Talbot Council until discovered in 2020 by local
residents. Subsequent plans were submitted in 2009 by the Cuddy
Group which changed the nature of the site to a 'brownfield'
(industrial) status. This suggested the land was already
contaminated and was a complete reversal of site status as the
previous plans had shown no industrial use recorded at the
site.
A local spokesperson for the East Glynneath Residents Against
Contamination group stated that from 2008 to 2016 the Cuddy
Group continued to tip on the site without regard for an
infrastructure. They believe the council failure to investigate
the contamination in 2008 breached the 1990 Environmental
Protection Act and that they have provided clear evidence of
this to the local MP, Christina Rees (Labour), Welsh Assembly
Member, Jeremy Miles (Labour) and the Council Leader Rob Jones
(Labour) and each member of the mainly Labour Neath-Port Talbot
Council Planning Committee. The spokesperson added that as a
group we are concerned that the Cuddy donation may be linked to
council corruption as outlined in a recent report by
Transparency International.
The report into Local Government Planning Department
corruption is by specialists Transparency International, the UK’s leading independent anti-corruption organisation
*** . It indicates that there are five key corruption indicators
relating to councillors’ involvement in major planning
decisions. These five key corruption risks include curiously timed political donations.
The document defines this as:
" A developer giving a series of political donations to
the local branches of a political party around the same time in which they were applying for planning
permission within the same local area.
A spokesperson for the East Glynneath Residents Against Contamination asked
the following Labour politicians if they believed the £11,500 Mike Cuddy and
Cuddy Group's donations to Peter Hain had any bearing on the policies of the
Labour controlled Neath-Port Talbot Council Planning Department malpractice in
2010. Also if Nicola Lake's contact with Geraint John Planning that changed
the wording of the report dated March 2020 to re-define the conservation
report was a similar occurrence.
The questions were worded as such and placed at the top of this information
section.
Dear........
Given the timing of Mike Cuddy's donation to Peter Hain and the subsequent
submission of plans, withdrawal of plans and approval of plans in 2010 by a
Labour controlled council which re-defined of the nature of the site to
'brownfield' status. Do you think that this donation had any bearing on the
planning department malpractice that breached the 1990 Environmental
Protection Act ?
Also given that a similar occurrence happened in 2020 with Nicola Lake's
contact with Geraint John Planning that eventually changed the wording in June
of the Ecological Appraisal dated March 2020 to culvert rather than maintain
the stream. Do you think the purpose of this action was encourage the planning
committee to deliberately breach the 2016 Environmental Wales Act?
The following document was attached to the email which highlighted possible
Planning Department malpractice: CLICK
HERE
http://www.walk-around-wales.com/county/npt/glynneath/enzo-development/info-other/20200816A-DO-EGRA-cover-pic-removed.pdf
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