Just stop moaning!
Police called in after 366 gripes by serial complainer which have cost his village £37,000
A BIZARRE row over a serial complainer which has cost families in a village £500 each escalated after police stepped in.
Gerry Woodhouse, 64, is accused of bombarding Potto Parish Council with 366 ‘pedantic’ complaints and freedom of information requests.
The former councillor’s sheer volume of complaints, which amounted to 1,500 pages, was so unusual it triggered an external audit costing £37,000 which the council must pay for.
Unable to pay the bill itself, the cost is now set to be shared between Potto’s 324 residents. At one point the correspondence with Mr Woodhouse occupied up to 80 per cent of the council’s time. The row has left the village on the edge of the North Yorkshire moors,
which is part of former Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s constituency, rocked by claims of threats and intimidation. Now it has emerged that police spoke to councillor Ian MacPherson after he visited Mr Woodhouse’s home. Mr Woodhouse, who owns an engineering business, was not in so Mr MacPherson spoke to his wife – allegedly leaving her feeling intimidated.
According to an email from an anonymous ‘whistleblower’, police received a complaint accusing Mr MacPherson of ‘harassment and intimidation’.
It claims he followed up the visit with ‘threats of a physical confrontation’.
The email goes on to allege that, after police investigated, Mr MacPherson ‘accepted what he had done’ and apologised to Mr Woodhouse’s wife ‘but, markedly, he has refused to apologise to the whistleblower’. In an email to the council, Sergeant Chris Ross, of North Yorkshire Police, confirmed that a ‘local resident’ had contacted the force over ‘the attendance of a parish councillor at his home address’ on August 3.
The email said the resident – who he identified as Mr Woodhouse – had ‘expressed his deep concern regarding
this’. Parish council chairman Andy Wilde said: ‘We’re stuck in a situation where one person’s actions are costing the whole village significant sums.’ Last night Mr MacPherson admitted that ‘with hindsight’ it had been ‘ misguided’ to call on Mr Woodhouse. He said: ‘I certainly had no intention to be confrontational... I simply wanted to have a reasonable conversation with him.’
He added: ‘I am in no way an aggressive person and I don’t think my manner suggested that in any way. But I did apologise to his wife because it felt like the right thing to do.’ Mr Woodhouse will not
confirm he is the serial complainer. He claims there are 10 to 15 ‘whistleblowers’ who are entitled to anonymity.
The council has asked Mr Sunak to intervene after villagers refused to foot the bill.
Last night police said officers had ‘issued advice’ over a ‘civil dispute’ but no further action was taken.