Four Newcastle residents, all vocal critics of the council and singled out in Scott Neylon's letters to the editor, have publicly backed Wallsend MP Sonia Hornery's claim that City of Newcastle boss Jeremy Bath is behind the letters.
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Former NBN newsreader Ray Dinneen, retired businesswoman Denise Lindus Trummel, Newcastle East resident Christine Everingham and retired school principal John Beach have pointed the finger of blame at Mr Bath for writing the letters.
They join Newcastle Maritime Museum Society head Bob Cook, who last week said he believed Mr Bath was the only person with motive enough to write the letters directed at him.
Mr Bath has denied any involvement in the misleading letter-writing campaign, which spans 13 years and appears to follow his career progression, attacking his critics and supporting his employers.
He said on Friday he was more than willing to put his name to his opinions and a "few letters" from his friend could not influence, let alone shutdown dissenting voices.
"If you go through the Herald's archives, you will see that I've put my name to more than a dozen letters and opinion pieces in the Newcastle Herald over the past decade, debating the major policy matters impacting those that have criticised City of Newcastle," he said.
"The Herald cannot dispute that when I want to say something, I put my name to it."
East End resident Denise Lindus Trummel said for a "long time" she'd been "suspicious of Scott Neylon's motives".
The 77-year-old retired businesswoman is a regular contributor to the Newcastle Herald's barometer of public opinion: the letters to the editor page.
"I just love Newcastle, but I don't agree with everything that goes on and the letters page gives me an opportunity to have a say," she said.
"I believe I should have a voice, we all should have a voice. I'm no more special than anyone else and we are all entitled to say how we feel about things going on in the city."
Ms Lindus Trummel found herself targeted on the Herald's letters page by Scott Neylon in September last year after she expressed repeated views against the Supercars.
"Oh Denise Lindus Trummel you cannot be serious?" the letter starts, falsely claiming Mr Neylon lives in Stockton.
"You protest for years against the Newcastle 500 while living in Mayfield, only to move to the East End and protest some more about Supercars. Sadly this is typical of the attitude of many people who live in the East End, where they enjoy a multitude of rate payer funded facilities such as Foreshore Park, several public car parks, Fort Scratchley, King Edward Park and Newcastle Ocean Baths. But heaven forbid the Council do anything that encourages non East Enders into the area."
Ms Lindus Trumel said she had previously clocked Mr Neylon's staunch support for City of Newcastle and found it odd, discussing it with friends who agreed.
When a Herald investigation revealed in July that Mr Neylon had been living in Japan for decades, was close friends with Mr Bath and was not a Herald subscriber, she immediately suspected there was "a lot more going on" and Mr Bath was behind the letters.
"I was suspicious of Scott Neylon and his opinions before, and other people mentioned it to me too. I certainly wasn't Robinson Crusoe," she said.
"It makes no sense to me. How is he so aware I moved house into town, which we did to downsize? Why is he so interested in the goings on of Newcastle council? Why is he always defending them? Just like everyone else, I'd like to get to the bottom of this and I don't believe a confidential investigation is going to provide answers."
Former NBN newsreader Ray Dinneen also supported the view that Mr Bath authored the letters.
"I think all of them were written by Jeremy," Mr Dinneen said. "I think it's all Jeremy. Why would someone who lives in Japan care so much about the goings on in Newcastle in such great detail?"
Mr Dinneen agrees there are too many coincidences in the letters.
In August 2019, Mr Neylon launched a broadside at Mr Dinneen, in a letter the Herald chose not to publish at the time, describing him as "auditioning to take over from that other grumpy old man, [Herald] columnist Paul Scott".
"Or maybe it's just relevance deprivation syndrome. How else do you explain Ray hating on garbage trucks collecting garbage, Supercars, light rail, the university's city campus, cyclists, to name but a few," the Neylon letter reads, this time falsely claiming the author lived in Mayfield.
"Ray, please challenge yourself to find some positivity in our city. We have so much to be grateful for."
Mr Dinneen believes the letter mirrors an exchange he had with Mr Bath on the Herald's letters page about 18 months before.
This time it was Mr Bath encouraging Mr Dinneen to find some "positivity".
"Ray Dinneen surely got out on the wrong side of the bed this Boxing Day," Mr Bath wrote in December 2017. "He says we need to do more for those disembarking from cruise liners. I agree but differ in acknowledging how much has already been achieved revitalising our city after decades of neglect."
Mr Bath signs off the letter urging Mr Dinneen to "finish 2017 with positivity".
Mr Dinneen says he's convinced Mr Bath wrote both letters.
"It doesn't take a lot to figure this out," he said. "To me it's pretty simple, but the question is what is going to be done about it?"
In response, Mr Bath said Mr Dinneen's views had been criticised by other Herald letter writers.
"The fact that I put my name to a letter calling out Ray Dinneen's lack of positivity for the city in 2017 is proof that I don't need to rely on friends to write about him 18 months later," he said.
Another target of Scott Neylon was former Newcastle East Public School principal John Beach, who for years was constrained from publicly voicing his opinions due to his job.
After retiring in 2016, and no longer being subject to a NSW Department of Education policy restricting employees engaging in public debate on political or social issues, Mr Beach began writing letters to the editor.
He says many were critical of the Supercars because he saw the impact the race had on the families from his former school community.
In October 2019, Mr Beach was singled out in a Scott Neylon letter after expressing disapproval at council's move to new rented premises in Newcastle West.
"Goodness, the continuing vicious penmanship from John Beach knows no end," the letter reads, falsely claiming Mr Neylon is living in Mayfield.
"His most recent personal attack on Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes gets more than a few facts wrong."
The letter goes on to outline the financial benefits of City of Newcastle's move to Stewart Avenue, while pointing out that Maitland Council planned to borrow $43 million for its new administration centre, which Mr Neylon claimed it would not pay off in 15 years.
Mr Beach said it was "so obvious" that Mr Neylon did not write the letter.
"It seems extraordinary that the response from a correspondent from as far away as Japan has such intimate knowledge of the matters I've raised with Mr Bath concerning governance," he said.
Newcastle East Residents Group member Christine Everingham, who was at the forefront of a seven-year battle against hosting the Supercars in the CBD, has had a long and difficult relationship with the council.
Dr Everingham, a retired University of Newcastle sociology lecturer, was banned from City of Newcastle premises for a year and limited to contacting the council only in writing, after being accused in early 2021 of "physically poking and pushing" a council employee at a public drop-in session for Foreshore Park planning. It's a claim Dr Everingham denies.
Like the others singled out for mention by Mr Neylon, she too is convinced Mr Bath wrote the letters.
The 75-year-old says she finds Nr Neylon's eagle-eyed interest in the minutiae of daily life in Newcastle unbelievable.
She says it gets even stranger when you look at why he would feel the need to write a letter intervening in a dispute about her being banned from the council.
"Why would someone in Japan care about me?" she said. "Why would someone in Japan care about my dispute with council, to me it's just ridiculous. Ultimately I believe it's Jeremy and he's been using two voices."
In August 2021, the Herald published a story detailing how lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes had dismissed a code of conduct complaint against Mr Bath, which had been submitted by former councillor Theresa Doyle in relation to Dr Everingham's ban from council.
The next day, Mr Neylon penned a letter to the Herald supporting Cr Nelmes' decision, claiming Mr Bath had done nothing wrong.
"How could Ms Doyle be upset about the Lord Mayor not supporting a complaint when Mr Bath didn't make the decision to ban Dr Everingham from Council meetings?" the letter reads, falsely claiming Mr Neylon lives in Waratah.
"I often wonder why the Herald continues to give such prominence to the residents of the East End."
Mr Neylon's dislike of Newcastle East residents doesn't stop there.
His pro-council letters label them whingers, accuses them of sulking and claims they never have "anything good to say about our beautiful city".
Dr Everingham describes the language as "divisive" and "horrible".
She points to an opinion piece written by Mr Bath in the lead up to the Newcastle 500 race in November 2017 where he urged residents to put the Supercars debate aside for the "historic weekend".
This, she believes, was the start of the rhetoric against Newcastle East residents.
"Opponents of the Newcastle 500 event have enjoyed months of making known their objections," Mr Bath wrote. "Can we park the vitriol for one weekend while we highlight to the world the brilliance of our city including our magnificent coastline?"
Just as the Japan-based Mr Neylon strangely does in his letters, Mr Bath refers to Newcastle several times in his opinion piece as "our city".
Mr Bath pointed out on Friday that he found the term "our city" 1700 times in Newcastle Herald articles and dozens of editorials.
He said the term "our city" featured in letters to the Herald by council critics, including Dr Everingham, Mr Beach and Ms Lindus Trummel.
"It is illogical to think a single common phrase, that is also frequently used by Newcastle Herald staff and other letter writers, is some grand piece of evidence of collusion between my friend Scott and I," he said.
