Letter: The KGB at Millmead

Published on: 7 Dec, 2018
Updated on: 7 Dec, 2018

From Tony Edwards

The condemnation of Guildford Borough Council’s “culture of secrecy” by the Liberal Democrats last month will conjure for many a picture of subversive goings-on in the bowels of Millmead House, where spies and assassins lurk in the shadows and foreign powers perhaps hatch plans to launder doubtful money through a nationwide programme of green-belt-grabbing and the seemingly innocuous establishment of “garden villages”.

And we need look no further than the Millmead car park for what – at first glance – appears to be evidence of the Russian secret service.

Council Leader Paul Spooner has proudly displayed his personalised number plate P4 KGB on his car since he purchased the plate back in 1996 when he was, as he told me in an email, “very busy in Russia and it reflected my sense of humour”. The cherished number was, he says, “a talking point with visitors from the former USSR”.

Paul disposed of his Russian-based business in 2004 but retains the KGB car reg along with his @paulKGB Twitter handle.

Other prominent reg numbers include Jimmy Tarbuck’s COM 1C, celebrity hairdresser Nicky Clarke’s H41 RDO, boxer Amir Khan’s BOX 111G, and the late Paul Daniel’s MAG 1C, each announcing what they do for a living, rather than confirming they’re just each a FLA5H G1T.