That there is a link between Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited and East Riding of Yorkshire Council now appears to be indisputable. However, whilst we are not stating an ‘old boys network’ is running rife through the Council in the form of Simon Taylor, Andy Acum, Councillor Nigel Pearson and Councillor Stephen Parnaby it does seem slightly odd that despite all the evidence of Rathlin Energy’s poor work practice at the well site known as West Newton A, including 19 breaches of permits and Health and Safety Executive investigations that took 15 months to complete, Activists and Residents concerns are dismissed whilst Rathlin Energy is allowed to carry on, with the council’s full blessing, to drill a gas field that is decimating the lives of residents and destroying the environment.
In 2001 Taylor Syms Public Relations was registered, Company Number 04244506, with Companies House. Simon Taylor is listed as the Managing Director whilst amongst other listed directors you will find Matt Stephenson and Andy Acum.
On 20 April 2006, following the resignation of William Syms in 2005, Taylor Syms Public Relations officially changed its name to TAS Communications Ltd. The name was ‘creatively’ composed using the initials of the company’s directors, Simon Francis Taylor, Andrew John Acum and Mathew James Stephenson.
On 21 December 2008 TAS Creative Ltd started life, Company Number 06777740, with Kelly Todd, Simon Taylor’s then-girlfriend, listed as one of only two directors, the other being Gemma Clark.
TAS Communications went into voluntary liquidation on 06 February 2009 leaving a long list of creditors who were owed, in total, nearly £350,000. Included amongst the list of those TAS Communications were in debt to was East Riding of Yorkshire Council, £1,225, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, £231,409.31 and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations local government group, £4,828.08, which seeks to “promote standards of professional excellence in this field”.
Amongst the list of employees owed “pay in lieu of notice and redundancy payments” can be found Claire Acum, wife of Andy Acum, £2,538.44, Kelly Todd, £2,462.52 and Gemma Clark, £3,000.00. Bearing in mind of course that Kelly Todd and Gemma Clark had both been directors of TAS Creative Ltd since 21 December 2008.
Several reasons were cited as to why the company voluntarily liquidated, including, Mr Taylor said, “having picked up the bad debts of clients such as Westbridge Homes and Wright Group, which both went under owing the company significant amounts and other organisations that were struggling to pay their bills.”
No mention of the above two companies can be found on the Liquidators statements and the only Westbridge Homes that can be found on Companies House listings is a Westbridge Homes of Beverley, currently still trading and, as at their last statement of affairs, showing a profit. However, what is included in the list of monies owed to TAS Communications was a Director’s Loan of £117,806.36, and the statement “an agreement was reached whereby a percentage of the debt would be paid over a five year period. The loan repaid totals £26,366.15″. The Director in question being none other than Mr Simon Francis Taylor.
On 14 January 2009 TAS Creative Ltd changed its name to Mercury Design & Marketing Limited, thereby severing all links with their previous company TAS Communications; the change was registered with Companies House on 30 January 2009. In 2009 things also began to get ever so slightly messy for East Riding of Yorkshire Council as news broke in the Hull Daily Mail and Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs column of a slightly less than transparent contract awarded to Mercury Design and Marketing Ltd.
ERYC advertised for “an interim Communications Manager (maternity cover)” at a salary of £38,575.00. The application process saw a shortlist comprising 6 high calibre candidates. On the day of the interviews a surprise announcement was made to the interview panel that Chief Executive Nigel Pearson would be joining them. It was reported in Private Eye that “at the end of the day he [Nigel Pearson] declared that none of the candidates was suitable, overriding protests from his colleagues”.
As oppose to re-advertising the vacancy and finding a ‘suitable candidate’ for the role a contract to run the press office for a monthly remuneration of £5,333.00 was awarded to Mercury Design and Marketing at almost twice the cost to us the taxpayer.
Interestingly, both Simon Taylor and Andy Acum have had close relations with East Riding of Yorkshire Council:
- Simon Taylor was the former Head of Communications and Public Relations for East Riding of Yorkshire Council and is self-proclaimed as “one of the country’s leading local government communications experts”.
- Andy Acum former Senior Marketing Officer and “multi-award winning” Marketing Manager at East Riding of Yorkshire Council was also the Editor of East Riding News, East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s newspaper.
Following the furore from Private Eye, Hull Daily Mail, Yorkshire Post and campaign group Hull and East Riding Taxpayers Alliance an external enquiry was undertaken by the District Auditor, Mark Kirkham, at the request of the Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Parnaby. Details of the events were revealed, following a Freedom of Information Request (FOI), by the Auditor that the Council had broken its own rules when three quotes for the contract had not been obtained. With a council spokesperson stating in response to the FOI that “Quotations were sought but only one written quotation was received by the council from Mercury Design and Marketing in relations to a temporary contract to run the council’s press office”.
In the report Mr Kirkham described policy director Steve Button’s explanation for only obtaining one quote from Mercury as “unconvincing”. He also said Chief Executive Nigel Pearson had misled a councillor in an e-mail by stating discussions with the PR firm only started after no appointment was made from a shortlist of external candidates who had applied for the advertised vacancy.
In fact, the auditor’s report revealed Mr Pearson had met with a Mercury Marketing and Design representative two days after the job had originally been advertised and subsequently received a draft proposal from the company three weeks before the job interviews took place.
During the inquiry into the contract allegations against Leader of the Council, Councillor Stephen Parnaby, were also investigated.
Councillor Parnaby was, during the time of the awarding of the contract, listed on Mercury Design and Marketing’s website as delivering communications training to councils starting at £1,750.00, plus VAT, for half a day. The courses were to be delivered alongside Simon Taylor. However, on 01 October 2009 a letter, marked Private and Confidential, from Simon Taylor to Stephen Parnaby refuted this strongly stating that “as we both know, you have never worked for or have any business connection with the company…. I have to say that the reference to you can only be put down to over enthusiasm on our part in marketing the courses – none of which have ever been delivered. We should never have used your name in this way and we can see now how this has been misconstrued.”
The letter starts “Dear Steve”; for a formal letter to a Council Leader we can only comment on the very informal and friendly salutation. Interestingly despite not being listed at the time as one of the directors of the company Simon Taylor signs himself as “Managing Director”.
Mr Kirkham, District Auditor, accepted Simon Taylor’s letter as proof that no courses had been delivered and no money had changed hands between Mercury Design and Marketing and Councillor Parnaby.
The cost to the taxpayer of bringing in the external auditor amounted to £10,435.
In 2010 the contract reached a ‘successful conclusion’ when Ann Woodward was appointed as Head of Performance and Strategic Partnerships. However, as Private Eye revealed once again in their Rotten Boroughs section all was not sweetness and light in the corridors of ERYC as Ms Woodward had unfortunately aired her dissatisfaction with the council’s handling of this matter on her very public Facebook page. The offending posts were quickly removed!
Now fast forward to 2012 and look who pops again, oh yes, none other than Mr Simon Taylor, but this time working for Rathlin Energy (UK) Limited in charge of ‘communications’.
On 31 December 2014 Simon Taylor became a director at Mercury Design and Marketing; included on their website in their list of achievements:
- Working directly for five of the ‘big six’ energy firms
- Dealing with two of the country’s most difficult onshore planning applications, coordinating all communications and stakeholder communication (See What Went Wrong at West Newton A for Communities of Holderness Against On Shore Drilling’s section on communications and stakeholder interaction for our opinion)
- Delivering services for two Italian and Norwegian oil and gas companies
However, not content with just Mercury Design and Marketing on 04 June 2015 Mercury Energy and Public Sector Services Ltd, Company Number 09623182, was added to Mr Taylor and Mr Acum’s portfolio of companies. With their website now showing the lofty heights these people have reached as being:
- Mr Simon Taylor – Group CEO
- Kelly Taylor (formally Todd) – Managing Director Consumer
- Andrew (no longer ‘Andy’) Acum – Managing Director Energy and Public Sector
The energy side of Mercury lists the following amongst its successes:
- Scottish Power Hatfield – onshore gas storage cavern
- Third Energy Ebberston Moor EDS – gas well in National Park
- Third Energy Ebberston Moor Pipeline through National Park
- Drax – extension for biomass co-firing
- E.ON Whitehall – onshore gas storage caverns
- Rathlin Energy – new gas well
- Rathlin Energy – new gas well
- Gassco – Langeled subsea pipeline for Statoil Hydro / Gassco
We, at Communities of Holderness Against, can only leave you, the reader, to draw your own conclusions. During many hours of research we have reached ours.
Communities of Holderness Against On Shore Drilling 