Election of Pat Cumbers to be Senior Townwarden

Why did I stand ? There were various reasons. The Charity known as the Town Estate had intrigued me since I came to Melton Mowbray from London in 1991. The Town Parks reminded me of a miniature Regent’s Park with the play areas, the water, the beautiful trees, shrubs and flowers – oases in the centre of a busy market town.

I often took my grandchildren to play in the parks, to enjoy the miniature train, the little roundabout and to feed the ducks. Then to enjoy a cup of tea and perhaps an ice cream.

I soon began attending the annual meetings of the Town Estate, firstly thinking ‘how quaint’ then that things were not “quite right”. There was no attempt to verify that I actually lived in the town before I voted . Then votes were counted elsewhere in secret, an unusual process but apparently not actually illegal and requests for the votes to be counted in public were refused.

I began to collect books and information about the Town Estate and the more I learned about the history, the more I was impressed. However, like most people in Melton Mowbray I loved the parks but I wanted to know what made the Town Estate ‘tick’.

For many months before the Annual Meeting in October 2007 people were asking me to stand for election as there was a belief that I would endeavour to make the Town Estate more open and accountable. I was well known locally as a former Melton Borough mayor.

I read as much as I could about the Town Estate including some of their annual accounts and the governing document. I also spent many hours on the World Wide Web reading numerous publications produced by the Charity Commission, determined to be well prepared.

It was not easy deciding to actually stand. The Town Estate is an important organisation which, I believed, should be more open and should consult more and I wanted to help. But it was the day of the meeting when I finally decided to stand.

At the meeting I had asked the Chairman why the Town Estate did not consult more and was told ‘Because we don’t have to.’ With my
Councillor background I especially understood the importance of openness and consultation and although I was certainly not surprised at the Chairman’s reply, I believed it was inappropriate for 2007. I asked for public vote-counting but that was refused.

I gave a quick synopsis of my C.V. The other candidate chose not to give his and the votes were then cast by writing the chosen name on the voting slips. The meeting continued while the votes were counted in secret in another room and I was surprised at the length of time the count was taking. Three tellers were counting about 100 votes–how could it take so long ?

It appeared I had received a respectable vote but I was not expecting to win. I was later accused of having “packed the meeting” but that was untrue. Barely a handful of people knew I was standing.

However after about an hour, the tellers returned to announce there had been five recounts and I had won by 55 votes to 53. It meant I was the first ever female Townwarden, Junior or Senior to be elected to the Town Estate since it began in 1549.

What excitement !  I had made history and felt very privileged to be part of such an ancient organisation.

A few feoffees congratulated me but most didn’t even speak to me but just glowered. But over the years I had seen enough elections to know that an unexpected result is not easily accepted by everyone but an unexpected result is still a democratic result and people usually accept that and I looked forward to working with my new colleagues.

But my election was never accepted. I was bullied, verbally abused, forbidden access to information, not allowed to fulfil my duty as a trustee, physically threatened, subjected to kangaroo courts, locked out, excluded and censured. In addition there was an attempt to “suspend” me where the “evidence” included provable untruths. Suspension was ultra vires so I was never actually suspended.