For some months now Councillor Richard Stay has been having a series of spats with some of his constituents in Caddington, a village a few miles from Luton - a Mr Patrick and Mrs Christine Smith.


Mr Smith has been running his own blogsite ( http://www.caddingtonvillagenews.com) and has published a number of insults and strange comments made by Richard Stay towards him. Mr Smith has been asking Councillor Stay about matters relating to the Parish Council amongst other things. A matter of some concern is that Mr Smith uncovered breaches of the law in relation to the Parish Council and Cllr Stay handled this with a marked degree of disdain. He did not take this (and other matters) raised by Mr Smith and other residents seriously at all.

Abuse of Power?
Councillor Stay must have tired of the questioning of Mr Smith as he appears to have handed evidence to the police that Mr Smith was harassing him. The police dutifully sprang into action, as it was a Councillor, to have both Mr and Mrs Smith arrested on Friday 27th August 2010 for harassment - Mr Smith was led away in handcuffs in full view of his neighbours and Mrs Smith was arrested at her place of work. It took 12 police officers to accomplish this and the confiscation of the Smiths' computers.

Mr Smith is certain that the evidence given to the police were copies of two anonymous emails sent to Stay, who then published them on his own blogsite. This week the charges were dropped and the Smiths' have sought legal advice and have had a barrister appointed to bring a civil action against Cllr Stay (stay tuned for more on this over the next few weeks).

Letter to All the CBC Councillors.
Today 24th September) Mr Smith sent a letter explaining what is happening in Caddington to all the other Central Bedfordshire Councillors which reads -

Dear Councillors,

My wife and I were arrested on Friday 27th August 2010 by the Dunstable Police on a warrant of harassment towards Cllr Richard Stay.

We believe this arrest came about as a result of what Cllr Stay said to the police, but we regard our comments to him or about him as being nothing more than communicating with our duly elected Councillor, who is the Deputy Leader of the Central Bedfordshire Council.

Since then my wife and I have been informed by the police that there will be no referral charges against us, in other words we have been cleared of any wrong doing.

We have had our reputations damaged by these false claims made by Cllr Stay, and we believe part of the reason for Cllr Stay’s actions was because of articles written about him in the Caddington Village News blog site that I run.
The media got hold of this story and photographs of me and the Councillor were published on the front page of the Luton On Sunday. I am writing to you so that you can get the true story from us. If you would give us the time please go to our community website  http://www.caddingtonvillagenews.com

The full facts are published on this website along with documents from our solicitor, as we are pursuing a civil action against Councillor Stay. I will point out, though, that the civil action is in the early stages but we intend to go through with this action against Cllr Stay (your Deputy Leader). We believe he has abused his position as a councillor and brought his office into disrepute.
You will find on the CVN's a statement made by Cllr Stay that proves he is not a truthful person and now he seems to be wanting to distance himself from any responsibility for having two innocent residents arrested for nothing more than attempting to communicate with our councillor.
Councillors please try to find the time and go to the above website to read just what has happened to us and the distress this has brought to us. You may find some of what took place against us was not what you would expect from Cllr Stay. You may not expect the police to over react by using 12 policemen to arrest a retired 66 year old man (ex-military) and his wife. By using police resources in such a way we feel that questions need to be asked of Dunstable Police and the Chief Constable.

I have sent you this email so you can get the true side of what took place and not any explanation you may hear from Cllr Stay or from hearing it at second hand.

Regards Mr Patrick and Mrs Christine Smith.
Please send your comments to BlackCat or go to Mr Smith's blog  http://www.caddingtonvillagenews.com

HE DOESN'T LIKE TRAVELLERS ...............

Here's an article we ran in BlackCat (when it was only a newsletter) about the heartless character of Councillor Stay

COUNCILLOR STAY DELIGHTS IN PINCHING TRAVELLERS’ VANS WHILST THEY ATTEND FUNERAL IN IRELAND

County Councillor Richard Stay, who holds the Travellers’ Portfolio at Bedfordshire County Council is “delighted” that travellers who were attending a funeral of a loved one have had their vans pinched by the Site Managers with the help of the Police.

Mr Stay was quoted at being “glad we were able to find a mechanism to remove them because it can be difficult to do so under current legislation”. This sounds to me that he agrees with people taking the law into their own hands.



We believe the Councillor is not only unfit to be a councillor but totally the wrong person to have the Travellers portfolio at County Hall. As a local resident said “It’s like giving Hitler the job of looking after the welfare of Jews”.

The action of the site managers was low and insensitive – particularly as the travellers will be suffering from bereavement when they return to Timberlands and find their homes have vanished. To heap more woe on to the situation the travellers are forced to pay for the release of their possessions from a secure compound.

As a consequence of this immoral and cowardly act BlackCat is urging all supporters of human rights to write to Richard Stay and tell him politely what they think of his attitude towards grieving travellers.

Please help us to wipe the smile off his face and contact him to tell him politely what you think of his sentiments:

Councillor Richard Stay
312 Manor Road, Caddington, Nr Luton, LU1 4DN
Telephone: 01582 724685
Email:  richard.stay@bedscc.gov.uk
Or contact the Site Manager at

Timberlands Pk, Pepperstock, LU1 4NB
01582 419420 or
Westgate Security
......OR HOMELESS PEOPLE EITHER
Councillor Stay was equally delighted when homeless people were evicted from HAZ Manor, but disenchanted that it took time and money to have them evicted. Here's a piece from Luton News:

Squatters evicted from HAZ Manor

Published on Wed Dec 09 15:16:32 GMT 2009Site cleared by council and police

A group of squatters has finally been evicted from a former hospital site near Streatley after a lengthy legal battle.

The St Margaret's Hospital site, known as HAZ (Housing Action Zone) Manor, had been occupied by members of the Exodus Collective since 1993.

After their lease on the building expired the group took legal action to remain there, and Central Beds Council has spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money to get them out.

Earlier this year a judge ruled that the group could be evicted and police and the council took control of the site, off the A6, at the weekend.

It has now been secured and the council is considering how to use it in the future.

Richard Stay, deputy leader of the council, said: "This case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court on taxpayer-funded legal aid.

"As a taxpayer I am appalled that this could be allowed to happen. It's a good result, but we should never have been held to ransom in the first place."

Also, this is another newspaper cutting about him.



So it looks as though 'Scumbag' Stay doesn't like ordinary folk to have human rights either!

So what do you think, is Councillor Stay a bully? Answers please on the back of a postage stamp