Street-an-Nowan soap fans are waiting for the next installment of their local ongoing larger-than-life saga. This week, ex-commissioner Dave Mundy (recently retired from the MMO) went public over events exactly one month ago today when three members of the commission were voted off in a secret ballot. Anyone heading to the harbour Commissioner's web site for information will be sadly disappointed - there is no 'news' in the 'news' section and according to the member's page the three said ex-commissioners are still in existence! All eyes will be on the next meeting - with it's public session at the beginning - due to be held at The Centre on Wednesday, 6th July next week - one episode not to be missed. On the agenda could be news about the new applicants recruited for the four empty posts that have been created (post four as a result of Cornwall Councillor, Ray Tovey resigning in June).
A FORMER member of Newlyn's port authority has slammed its chairman, claiming he flouted the rules by dismissing three members of the commission. Dave Munday, who resigned from Newlyn Harbour Commission on June 1, spoke out this week over the furore surrounding the eviction of three commissioners from their posts. He claims that the secret ballot, which led to the ousting of John Lambourn, Nick Howell and Juliet Taylor, breached the laws governing the commission, which was set up by the Newlyn and Harbour Revision (Constitutional) Order. Mr Munday, who recently retired from his post as senior marine officer with the Marine Management Organisation, has again called for the resignation of the commission's chairman, Gilbert McCabe, for failing to stick to the regulations. He says that when the surprise ballot was held on Tuesday, May 31, only seven of the 11 commissioners were legal members of the board as their colleagues' terms of service had expired on May 30.
According to Mr Munday, the votes of commissioners not physically present at the eleventh-hour meeting could not be counted. And of the nine who attended, five confirmed they voted in support of the trio – rendering their subsequent expulsion illegal. He also claimed that the reasons for bringing about the controversial vote in the first place were false. "The only way commissioners can be removed is by breaching the conditions laid down in the statutory instrument; no allegations were ever made that they had breached these conditions," Mr Munday told The Cornishman. He hopes the Department for Transport, which appointed the commissioners when the board was formed last year, will step in to help fill the gaps.
"I felt that I had to resign from the commission, partly from the completely unfairness of the process adopted by the chairman and partly from very serious reservations about the legality of it under the statutory instrument," he added. "Newlyn is a trust port, but because of the actions of the chairman, the commission has lost the trust of Newlyn. I believe the chairman must now do the honourable thing and resign."
The three sacked commissioners have approached St Ives MP Andrew George who met with Mike Penning, Government Minister at the Department for Transport, on Monday to discuss their plight. "The minister is aware of the situation and has received a submission which is going to take some time to look at," said Mr George.
Mr McCabe said he was unable to comment on the claims at the time of going to press.
