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´óÏó´«Ã½ Inside Out investigates claims that Melton Mowbray's Town Estate charity does not carry out criminal record checks on park workers, despite advice from the Charity Commission to do so.

The programme also looks at claims that the Town Estate sidelines women members after it changed the rules and the door locks to keep out Pat Cumbers after she was elected to a senior position.

The Town Estate, which is supposed to be democratic, does not allow public scrutiny of its meetings.

Melton Mowbray is one of the few places in the country where parks and markets are not run by a local council authority, but by another elected body, the Town Estate – a tradition that goes back five centuries.

The Town Estate pays for the parks' upkeep by using the money it raises on market days. About £250,000 is collected every year, much of it in cash.

The estate owns 100 acres of prime development land south of Melton worth many millions of pounds which could one day be used for housing, should the town get a southern bypass.

Melton Mowbray's Town Estate was set up in medieval times and its operation could be said to belong to a feudal society.

Everyone in Melton should have a vote in how the estate is run but, ever since a woman was elected to a senior position on the estate, it has been mired in controversy.

Pat Cumbers, a former Mayor of Melton, found her authority removed by the Town Estate three days after she was elected.

The locks were changed on the Town Estate offices so she could not look at the books.

The Charity Commission later told the Town Estate they did not have the power to suspend her.

Mrs Cumbers is also concerned at the lack of criminal record checks on park workers. It follows the jailing of a park kiosk attendant, Michael Bonshor, for the sexual grooming of two underage schoolgirls.

Bonshor was 55 years old at the time but the chairman of the Town Estate, Ken Saunders, called the episode "six of one and half a dozen of the other".

Mr Saunders told the Charity Commission he did not think it necessary to carry out criminal record checks on employees. He quoted other councils where he said staff were not checked.

However, Inside Out has checked and both Melton and Hinckley & Bosworth councils check their staff, as do other councils which employ park staff in Leicestershire.

Another woman who was elected a "feoffee" or trustee on the Town Estate was Sue Gowans.

She says she was not even allowed in the Town Estate offices.

She also alleges she was told the price of hiring stalls for a charity Christmas fair depended upon how she voted in a Town Estate meeting.

She voted against a commercial deal and then found the price of stalls had tripled in price from a previous agreement.

The claims that it depended on how she voted were denied.

The estate took her to court and lost.

Mrs Gowans says she was also shaken to find a picture of a man wearing only underpants with the word "Caution" emblazoned upon the front. The photo was in her paperwork taken away from a Town Estate meeting.

Mrs Gowans and Mrs Cumbers are no longer "feoffees".

Mrs Gowans stood down feeling driven out.

Mrs Cumbers tried to stand for re-election but they refused to allow her to stand.

One of the present trustees' sons was appointed to replace her without a ballot.

Some in the town have called the Town Estate a "men's club" where they are unwilling to listen to the opinion of people in the town.

One café owner said: "Basically their attitude is, we're going to do what we want so stuff the lot of you. Nobody seems to have any say in what's done."

The Town Estate has refused to take part in the Inside Out film despite several requests over the past 10 months.

Inside Out, Monday 9 November 2009, ´óÏó´«Ã½ One East Midlands, 7.30pm, and ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer

BG