Scientology officials were out in full force on Tuesday at East Grinstead’s annual town meeting in a desperate attempt to schmooze local councillors amid growing concern among locals about the group’s influence on the town.
Last year, the Daily Mail reported on Scientology’s growing influence over East Grinstead, the home of their Saint Hill UK headquarters. After photos emerged of former Mayor Frazer Visser posing with celebrity Scientologist Tom Cruise at a Mission Impossible premiere, the Mail reported “attending glitzy celebrity events and meeting A-listers is seen as a perk of the job” for local councillors. “The cosy relationship between Scientologists and local politicians” the article continues, “is causing mounting concern among critics and council insiders.”
Since then, a number of local residents have taken to Town Council meetings to pose questions to their elected officials about whether having such a “cosy” relationship with the world’s most controversial ‘religious’ group is appropriate – only to have their questions censored from the public record and redacted from official meeting minutes. On requesting a meeting with the Council to express their concerns privately, residents were told it would ‘not be possible’, but that their voices had “been heard”.
Scientology operates a policy known as ‘Safe Pointing’ in which founder L. Ron Hubbard instructed his followers to “carefully and painstakingly find out who exactly are the top dogs in the area in financial and political circles” and that the organisation’s “viability depends on having all areas and persons who could affect or influence the operation under PR control.” In another policy titled ‘The Special Zone Plan’, Scientologists are told “a nation or a state runs on the ability of its department heads, its governors or any other leaders. It is easy to get posts in such areas […] Don’t bother to get elected. Get a job on the secretarial staff or the bodyguard” and that “The cue in all this is don’t seek the cooperation of groups. Don’t ask for permission. Just enter them and start functioning.”
Each major Scientology base known as an ‘Advanced Org’ will have at least one staff member dedicated safe pointing and who works full time at building relationships with key local officials. The result is Mayors and dignitaries being invited to attend lavish gala dinners and awards ceremonies in order to snap photographs which can later be used to claim legitimacy through Scientology’s PR efforts.
Dick Sweatman, a former East Grinstead Mayor who currently holds office as a councillor at Mid Sussex District Council, is widely known by locals as a key ally for Scientology and took the stage to open their Narconon drug rehabilitation centre in September 2015. The centre subsequently fell into disrepute after The Guardian raised significant concerns about their practices which resulted in it losing its status with the Care Quality Commission and an investigation by the Charity Commission. Sweatman was also found to be meddling with plans for a peaceful demonstration outside Saint Hill in 2023, attempting to apply for a road closure in order to disrupt protestors on behalf of the Church.
However, his alliance with Scientology remains apparently unaltered as he was spotted cosying up with Scientology PR official Liz Ostermann at East Grinstead’s annual town meeting on Tuesday. Despite being an official himself, Sweatman was chaperoned around by Ostermann and deliberately kept clear of known ex-Scientologists present in the room.
The annual town meeting is an opportunity for local residents to meet and get to know their Councillors on an informal basis, with refreshments available in the form of wine and non-alcoholic drinks. The meeting, which took place at East Grinstead Town Council’s offices on the East Court estate, saw a presentation from the local Bluebell Railway as well as a local resident being awarded the “Freedom of East Grinstead” in response to his efforts to raise money for mental health charities by running 366 marathons over the course of a year.
However as soon as the meeting drew to a close Scientology officials jumped into action, working their way around the room in a desperate attempt to schmooze local officials. Although only Ostermann was there at the start of the event, Scientology PR director Graeme Wilson arrived an hour later – half way through a resident’s presentation – and accompanied her in cornering Councillors after the meeting.
The Church are facing a growing PR crisis in the United Kingdom this week after The Observer published a damning review of their recent harassment of critics and the Daily Mail hit out at the “brutal world of British Scientology”, so it comes as no surprise that OSA operatives are working overtime to change the narrative and build sympathy among local officials.
But as the media shifts its focus onto Scientology’s abusive practices, will their plan work? Only time will tell.
