In the minutes of the council meeting of 16 October 2025 Cllr Gough stated that without the authorisation of the council he had personally spent approximately £3,600 in connection with matters relating to the village hall portfolio, land registration, lease documentation, and associated data recovery.
At a recent council meeting it was claimed that £6,000 had been spent on legal expenses associated with the village hall. The money spent personally by Cllr Gough is not included in this figure.
As the council will not respond to my e mails I submitted a formal ‘FOI’ request asking for more details about Cllr Goughs expenditure.
The clerk to the council has responded:
“The council are unable to provide this information as this is personal to Cllr Gough and was not incurred by the council or on council authorisation.
This was expenditure incurred personally by Cllr Gough to allow him to defend a complaint made against him to ERYC standards, the content of which the council is not party to”.
It would seem that what many have suspected is actually a fact. Cllr Gough is using his own funds to rebut complaints made against him by several residents to the East Riding of Yorkshire Standards Officer. It’s possible that Cllr Goughs quest to recover data from an old council laptop part is also part of his efforts to defend himself against complaints.
The investigation into 15 complaints against Cllr Gough has been ongoing for 2 years and 2 months. It is still not known when the report will be published.
You can now share this information via social media, e mail or print.