Last December Pocklington Town council became aware of a rumour that East Riding Council were planning to sell the Burnby Hall Building in order to save money.

The Town Council met with ERYC officers and local councillors in January to discuss ways of saving the building for the community. As a result the town council reached out to local organisations who might be interested in taking space in the building and anyone else who might be able to provide practical assistance.

One of the partners inerested in saving the building is the Pocklington & District Heritage Trust who would like to establish a heritage centre & museum on the ground floor to display many of the artefacts discovered in our area.

No Pocklington ward councillors have engaged with the issue since that first meeting in January.

In mid-April PTC became aware that the ERYC valuation and estates manager has met with the Burnby Hall Gardens Trust to discuss relaxing covenants and deeds relating to the building should it be put up for sale. The council is also considering demolishing the community hall to facilitate car parking. In the light of this news on 17 April Pocklington Mayor Steve McCann wrote to the Conservative leader of ERYC to express his disappointment that the local community has not been invited to be part of the decision-making process about the future of Burnby Hall.

Commenting yesterday in the Bugle Cllr Steve McCann said that:

There has been NO progress regarding Burnby hall house & community Hall in fact no communication at all from ERYC or prospective Ward Councillors following the PTC letter to ERYC sent two weeks ago. Furthermore, there had been no communication with PTC from any other prospective candidates standing for any other option.
Talk is cheap the real value is on the actions candidates can & will deliver.
I would suggest the electorate do their own research on each individual candidate rather than read any of the bumf posted through letterboxes recently but really hope people vote for the individual rather than party colours there is no need for party politics at local level.

Why is it that the East Riding of Yorkshire Council and our current local ward councillors have such a deep seated disregard for Pocklington residents?