by Rebecca Hannant
Members of the Withernsea Pier and Promenade Association are appealing for people to get in touch as donated funds are redistributed.
Following the announcement that the group was being wound up, Rachel Larsen of the WPPA is contacting 600 people and organisations who donated to the project.
She said: “Everybody that I have contact details for will be emailed or written to as soon as possible with details on how to make a claim against our funds.”
Despite sending out the forms, Rachel said that many email addresses were bouncing back as undeliverable, making it harder to give back the funds.
Rachel added: “Once I have contacted everyone that I can find contact details for I will make a further announcement asking anyone else to come forward to request a claim form. At this point a deadline will be given for any further claims as we cannot continue indefinitely.
“Those making a claim in this way will need to provide us with details of when and how much they donated so we can check it against our records.
“There is also an option on the same form to donate the money to another worthwhile cause to help projects in Withernsea.”
The WPPA has confirmed that it will not be returning any money that was donated anonymously through bucket collections due to issues with verification. Money will also not be returned to anyone who received something in return for their cash such as plaques, merchandise, ice creams, advertising or benches.
It has also confirmed that its records show that it has the funds to fully repay all donations, grants and membership fees. Any funds left over will be donated to a worthwhile cause in Withernsea.
Rachel said: “Please give us time to sort this out – we are all volunteers with our own jobs/ lives, and it can’t be done overnight.
“We could put this all in the hands of a liquidator to speed things up, but we know that most people would not get their money back if we were to use a liquidator, so we are trying to ensure that as much money as possible is returned to our supporters and donated to this town.”
