Saturday, 14 March 2026

From Cllr Patsi Guilfoyle:

Answer to Cllr. Boden's repeated allegations published on social media and the BBC in reply to her Open Letter sent to all Hebden Royd Town Councillors on 24th February 2026.

This is a long and very detailed post, and it is intended to address several claims by Councillor Boden regarding the Trades Club building.

The claims are

1. That the CLP (Constituency Labour Party / Calderdale Labour party) owns the building known as the Trades Club.
2. That tax was evaded on income received from the Trades Club building
3. That two councillors acted unlawfully to gain a grant from Hebden Royd Town Council and Calderdale Community Fund to benefit the Labour Party. The two councillors being, me, Hebden Royd Town Councillor Patsi Guilfoyle and Councillor Scott Patient, Calderdale Councillor and Deputy Leader. Also members of the Building and Management Committee, which manages the Trades club building.

Prior to discussing these accusations, I would like to share some advice given to councillors recently by Councillor Boden

"I have sought independent employment law advice. That advice is clear that any concerns regarding member conduct must be addressed strictly in accordance with the Council's adopted procedures, including grievance processes, and the established Standards framework.

"Making or circulating statements that reach conclusions, attribute fault, or characterise conduct in advance of any formal review risks prejudicing any subsequent process and may compromise procedural fairness.

"It is therefore essential that all parties refrain from commentary outside the appropriate formal channels and allow any concerns to be considered objectively, impartially, and in compliance with our statutory and employment law obligations".
 
Councillor Boden has made an important point here and it is for this very reason that I have refrained from making a full statement and rebuttal against her claims, that I have acted unlawfully.

However, she continues to repeat her false claims, despite the fact that there is a an ongoing investigation, by the Electoral Commission, initiated by her.

Members of the Building and Management Committee have been issued with warnings, from the Labour Party, that "all parties refrain from commentary outside the appropriate formal channels".

I have decided, as an Independent Councillor, that I may ignore this stricture, as has Councillor Boden. She does not seem to apply this advice to herself.

I would like to add, holding colleagues and councillors to account, reporting and complaints, should go through the monitoring officer. However, Councillor Boden has claimed she has made accusations in the public's interest, claimed freedom to speak as a human right  and has pronounced the guilt of individuals on social media, possibly without reporting this to the monitoring officer.  I have never been asked to account by any official or Monitoring Officer, for the events which led to the incorporation of wheelchair access to the Trades club.
 
Accusations from Councillor Boden

Example 1 In 2019, the party submitted signed accounts to the Electoral Commission that stated, "Calder Valley CLP purchased no physical assets in 2019 and owns no property." No rental income was shown – despite the fact that the building was rented out. Nothing changed in relation to the ownership/ leasing out of the Trades between 2019 and 2024. Yet, following my report to the Electoral Commission, on 24 April 2025 the Constituency Party reported that "Two local branches continue to own the Hebden Bridge Trades Club. This continues to be rented to one tenant with another soon to move in following some major ground floor refurbishment." The accounts reported a rental income of £14,262".
 
Answer:   To the first statement by Cllr Boden, it shows a profound lack of understanding of the history of the Labour Party, the Building and Management Committee and the Trades Club.

The Trades Club building was bequeathed to the local branch of the Labour party "To serve the social needs of the local community." (regardless of political allegiance) by the Local Trades Council who had built it in 1925.

The Labour Party nominees hold the deeds to the building.  All income from leasing of the building is used to maintain and develop the building for community use.

In essence this means the building cannot be sold by the Labour Party but may be regarded as an asset.

Therefore, the Calder, and Luddenfoot branches were charged to work together to ensure the maintenance and upkeep of the building. A sub committee was formed known as The Building Management Committee a separately constituted Unincorporated Association.

Post the 2015 flood, accounts of the Constituency Labour Party and Building and Management Committee were considered separately, as all the Building and Management Committee monies were going towards the building. Nothing was going from the rental of the building to the Constituency Labour Party for election purposes.  Indeed during this period, the accounts for the Building and Management Committee were running at a loss year on year with no taxable income to declare.

This separation of account submissions has been proved to be an error. Many thanks to Councillor Boden for pointing this out. There is some indication that combined accounts were submitted to HM Revenue & Customs during the last 24 years. This is at the route of the investigation being carried out by the Electoral Commission.
 
To my mind, it must be understood that various groups of volunteers have been managing this, both in terms of the Building and Management Committee and The Labour party. Handovers of responsibilities and communications may not have been as detailed as one would have liked during the last 24 years.
 
Following Cllr Boden's complaints about the presentation of accounts to the Electoral Commission and the advice given, all the accounts have now been submitted as combined with the Constituency Labour Party.  The asset value which was £190,000 in 2021 has been documented by Councillor Boden as being £300,000. However, she has not given her evidence for that estimate, but she has stated this in a news report on the BBC, 7 February 2025. An investigative journalist named Nick Meir has stated a building evaluation of around £190,000, in  his podcast, of August 2025.
 
Recently a letter has been found in the Building and Management Committee archives from HM Revenue & Customs, dated 3rd May 2013 stating that "the accounts of 2012 (show)  that the association has only a small amount of profit and annual corporation tax is unlikely to be more than £100. If this continues to be the case, and the following conditions still apply, I will not need to ask for another company tax return for 5 years"  This letter was received after an annual tax submission which was of the combined accounts.
 
This proves that the Building and Management Committee and the Labour party are not guilty of theft from the tax office or indeed any malicious attempt to defraud or con the public or their members, as has been claimed and implied by Councillor Boden.
 
The flood of 2015 obviously greatly disrupted the running of the Building and Management Committee throughout 2016, 2017 and 2018 so this letter may have been filed incorrectly, a human error, and the income per annum at that point was £5,700, insurance was £6000. That cost split 50/50 with the Trades Club Music venue.

The insurance payments post flood were used to lift the beer cellar from the basement to the ground floor, a flood resilient flooring system was installed, and a lift shaft and lift installed.

Councillor Boden states that the rental income for the year 2025 is recorded as £14,262. However, this sum is not the rent paid by the Trades Club, which is in fact £8,800 PA. (rate commenced April 2023).

The sum of £14,262 includes costs which Cllr Boden does allude to, which had been paid by the Building and Management Committee and includes the Trades club contribution to insurance - at approx. £2,500, plus the Trades club's payment for electricity, approx £2,000, plus a rebate from British Gas of around £1200.

(The Building and Management Committee had been paying a standard charge for a gas meter which had been removed post flood, but the Building and Management Committee had not been informed.)
 
Councillor Boden used this figure of £14,262 in a report for the BBC (written by David Rhodes) and in various social media posts to insinuate that the income had been at  this level for many years and was a net income which the Building and Management Committee should have been paying tax on. In fact, on the BBC website, "She also claimed Labour had failed to pay tax on the property's rental income for the past twenty years, which she estimated exceeded £100,000".

These are wild and reckless estimates which indicate not a desire for the truth but a desire to discredit the Building and Management Committee and the individuals associated with it.

It sounds dreadful. However the questions which we should ask ourselves are;

• Is she implying that the income was £5000 pounds per year for the last twenty years? Therefore tax is owed on £100,000?  Even though we all know tax is paid annually not cumulatively and costs are offset against income before tax is applied,
• Or is she saying there was a profit made of £100,000 over 20 years on which no tax was paid?  Still indicating a profit of £5000 per annum.

However, even the roughest estimate of the total rental income for the last twenty years would be hard pushed to show an income above £90,000 in total, given the rent breaks and loss of a second ground floor tenant since 2016. This income would in terms of tax due, would then need to be estimated against costs incurred.

The rental income in 2002 at the start of the current lease was £3.720. Information published by the journalist Nick Meir and stated in the lease agreement with the Trades club.

The yearly income from the first floor from 2016 up to April 2023 was £5,700.

Councillor Boden was aware of this as Treasurer of Calder branch of the Labour party.

The accounts for the year 2021 also showed the rental income was £2,850 with six months' rent suspended and gifted to the Trades Club during Covid. The accounts showed a deficit of around £500 at that point.

However, Councillor Boden chooses to suppress this information and pursue a narrative that the Labour Party was earning a profit from the rental of the building and not paying taxes on profit, despite corporation tax not being charged until there is a profit of £25,000 pa.
 
To me, Councillor Boden is not being fully transparent and is intentionally obfuscating to create the impression that serious crimes and fraud have been committed.

Alternatively, she has not investigated the situation thoroughly, and was unaware of this, before deciding to go on National News in order to discredit the Labour Party, the Building and Management Committee and Hebden Royd Town Council with her estimates of rental income for the last twenty years, which seems shoddy in the least, with no regard for the people, the volunteers who have helped to maintain and work to keep a building open to "serve the social needs of the local community". for the last 24 years.
 
The Building and Management Committee has consequently had the accounts audited and the auditors stated that no tax is owed since 2014.
 
Apparently in the search for transparency, and to hold organisations (which she has personal conflict with) to account, Councillor Boden is not being completely transparent, has never declared a personal interest, and is presenting only the details which suit her narrative. Her personal interest seems to be dislike of individuals in the Labour party.
 
At no point did the Trades Club Building and Management Committee contribute significant monetary donations to the Electoral activities of the Labour Party. Occasional donations may have been made prior to 2015 but certainly not after that date, post the devastating floods which wrecked the ground floor of the building.  

The Labour Party had office rooms in the building which were used free of charge but meetings after the flood tended to be held in other venues at a cost to the Constituency Labour Party.

All income from rent was put back into maintaining the building, paying charges and insuring the building by the Building and Management Committee.

It may be pertinent to note that requests for donations were made by the Building and Management Committee at the monthly branch Labour group meetings to help with the refurbishment and repairs for the ground floor. (Councillor Boden as a member of the Labour Party was aware of this).
 
During this time, the work had started to rebuild a flood resilient and accessible ground floor and the Building and Management Committee invested money into fitting a disabled lift to the Trades Club first floor, for the good of the community. However, money ran out by 2018, and the ground floor was essentially unusable, and the personal lift could not be accessed as the floor was uneven and there was no disabled toilet in the building.

Which leads us to Councillor Boden's second accusation.
 
Accusation
 
Example 2 "In 2021, Cllr Scott Patient (then an HRTC councillor) and Cllr Patsi Guilfoyle(then Labour) were central to the local Party obtaining a grant from the Town Council of £10,803. This was for the capital improvement of the Party's commercial premises, the income from which it was not declaring to HM Revenue & Customs.

Cllrs Patient and Guilfoyle were closely involved on both sides, Party and Council. Both the giving and receiving of such a grant are unlawful. Local authorities may not donate to political parties, nor are they, in law, permissible donors from which parties can accept funds.

The denial, aggression and gaslighting to which I have become subject for raising these matters has unfortunately leached into the conduct of the Town Council via some Labour councillors - as the past week illustrates so well. When met with requests for accountability and reasonable challenge, the reaction appears to me to be driven by emotion, not close attention to our duties as councillors.

I trust this information is helpful".
 
 
Answer

In 2021, Cllr Patient and I were both members of the Building and Management Committee whose structure and accounting have been explained in my previous response to Councillor Boden's accusations, and we were both elected Town Councillors of Hebden Royd Town Council at that time.

The income that year, (post and peri covid) 2021 was documented as £2,850 in the accounts and the Building and Management Committee was in a deficit of approx. £500.

Cllr Boden is claiming that the Building and Management Committee was avoiding paying tax on this income which is highly debatable and defamatory. The Building and Management Committee was at this point trying to open access for wheelchair users to the first floor of the building which had been inaccessible in all the years it has functioned as a major community asset and very important music and social venue for residents in the valley.

Therefore, we applied for grants which were legally available for us to access despite the Building and Management Committee being a sub-committee of a political party.
 
Hebden Royd Town Council had funds we could apply to as the terms of reference for community funding states in exclusions:
 
4.2 An application that aims to support or promote the religious / political beliefs/ interests of an individual or organisation (excluded). Applications must demonstrate that the project will be of benefit to the wider community. However, this does not exclude activities on the premises of or organised by a particular religious/faith group or political party.
 
The obvious aim of obtaining the grant was to "serve the social needs of the local community" not to promote the political beliefs of the owners.
 
The grant application supporting information included a survey which showed clearly the great need for the community to have increased accessibility to a very important social venue, i.e. The Trades Club music venue.
 
Survey results 

The responses were "staggering though unsurprising as you can read in the survey report. The headlines are that 76% of respondents felt an accessible building was important.
 
From 864 responses in total:

• 79% of respondents feel an accessible building is important, and 43% think it's very important
• We had responses from some very regular visitors - 42% visiting 2 or more times a year, 33% monthly
• Here's a tally of the responses in the free text question, from 223 responses: 118 mentioned they had general mobility issues; 50 said they or a friend/family member is a wheelchair user; 22 mentioned hearing impairment; 17 mentioned visual impairment; 18 mentioned neurodivergence and/or sensory issues.

(end of survey)

The survey proved that establishing accessibility for wheelchair users and others with mobility issues would be of high importance and would be of huge social benefit to the community thus fulfilling the aims of the Trades Unions who bequeathed the building to "serve the social needs of the local community" and the Hebden Royd Town Council aims to show that "the project will be of benefit to the wider community".
 
Councillor Boden has confidently claimed that the refurbishment of the ground floor was for the benefit of the Labour Party, who have not received any finance from the Building and Management Committee as it is apparent that all income was reinvested into the building.

The counter argument is that the refurbishment of the ground floor which consisted of levelling the floor from the external entrance to the lift, the establishment of a disabled toilet and creating an electrical opening for the entry door, was "primarily for the benefit of the wider community" not for the benefit of The Labour party.

Councillor Boden has constantly alluded to this grant as being granted unlawfully and under the radar while also on social media commenting.
"And don't forget Patsi Guilfoyle used the fact that she helped get this £10,803 for Labour's benefit from the council of which she is still a councillor to get herself elected in 2023"

I strongly dispute Councillor Boden's claim that I did, "get this £10,803 for Labour's benefit ". The people who have voted for me in Fairfield ward know that I have done this to "serve the social needs of the local community" and specifically a large minority of people who have issues with mobility.

According to Councillor Boden, I "bleat" on about this and it "doesn't cut it with (her.)"
 
One of her many less than polite comments about me which she has posted on social media and has been sent to me by concerned constituents, as she has blocked me on social media, thankfully.

So, Cllr Boden is claiming that I am broadcasting my involvement with establishing the disabled access for the Trades club, while concurrently flying under the radar. Interesting.
 
It may be pertinent to note that similar grants have been awarded to Churches in Hebden Royd by Hebden Royd Town Council Community funding, including Crag Vale and Hebden Bridge which have been used to improve the buildings (which are owned by The Church of England) to "benefit the wider community."

However, Councillor Boden has not shown any interest in these grants or indeed in the organisations involved. Her main area of interest, or I hesitate to use the word, obsession, seems to be anything involving Labour Party members with whom she has had a considerable number of disagreements and conflict. Therefore, her impartiality may be questionable, and her motives may possibly be less noble than she claims. 
 
This is clearly a matter of interpretation of whether the grant has been used for the good of the residents in Hebden Bridge (my interpretation) or for the good of the Labour Party.  (her interpretation).
 
Perhaps the good people of Hebden Bridge can help us to determine this?
 
Many thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read this, and it will be distributed in the same way Councillor Boden distributed her open letter, to all councillors by email and through local media pages to those residents who are interested.

My intent is not to engage in any further debate on this matter but to put my point of view forward and to exercise my human rights and my right to freedom of speech, to defend myself. I feel it is now up to people who are interested to make up their own minds on this matter and I realise some supporters of Councillor Boden will not accept my version of events, but some people may feel they understand the overall picture a little better and use their critical thought processes when reading further statements regarding these matters from Councillor Boden.
 
Councillor Patsi Guilfoyle.
Councillor for Hebden Royd Town Council
Independent, previously Labour Party member.

 

Please use the HebWeb Forum for any responses to this item

---