Court and Pay

Cardinham Parish Council screws Parishioner in Small Claims Court

Cardinham Parish Council took Archie Bonker to Court. He was forced to pay £72 for 35 pages of CPC Minutes.

	For years CPC never published minutes on Notice Board, Library, Internet etc. So if you wanted copies, you paid CPC’s price. For several years it was 50p/page

	In 2006, 4 CPC councillors were convicted of misconduct, based on evidence from the minutes Chair and another Councillor were suspended for 3 months. Vice-Chair and another were censured

	To stop this happening again, CPC immediately increased the price to £2/page. CPC expected this would stop Archie Bonker wanting the Minutes in future. But Mr Bonker was determined to keep getting them in the public interest. So he admits wrote to CPC agreeing to pay the new charge.

	CPC sent him a batch of Copies of 9 months Minutes and this invoice for £72 But now he had backing of Sally Lloyd-Jones, Head of Legal Services at NCDC. Although she had no jurisdiction, she insisted CPC to give him free copies in future . So he felt justified refusing to pay this extortionate invoice for Copies he now got free.

	CPC vindictively demanded the payment, although it could easily have canceled the debt. After all, the Copies had only cost it about £2, not £72. CPC took him to Bodmin Small Claims Court where the Judge ordered him to pay with costs. This was CPC’s sheer, bloody minded revenge on Archie Bonker

	But he felt this was a small price to pay for 2 important defeats for CPC. 1) CPC now gives him copies of the the Minutes free. 2) NCDC proved CPC can be made to obey the law, even without formal jurisdiction.

	Cornwall Council should follow NCDC’s example It should stop turning a blind eye to, or supporting, CPC’s lawbreaking .Because when CPC refused to let Archie Bonker take copies free, it broke the law. And it can only make make a "reasonable" charge for supplying copies. £2 for a tuppenny copy is extortion.