GUY Brudenell has been very much a key figure in Helmsley, but he has not always been appreciated by everyone in the town.

Some may have been impressed by the entrepreneur’s fabulous home, Kirkdale Lodge in nearby Nawton, which has its own cricket pitch and was up for sale in April 2007 for £1.3 million.

But back in June 2006 the villagers were not so impressed about his private helicopter landing in his garden, particularly at weekends and they formally objected. The roar, they claimed, was making their lives a misery.

Mr Brudenell was legally entitled to land there but offered a compromise –a new helipad about 170 metres away, well north of the village centre. This was still regarded as unacceptable by Nawton Parish Council, but it was overruled by experts at Ryedale District Council, which approved the plan.

The businessman also ruffled some feathers when he railed at suggestions being made to improve Helmsley involving Village Design Statements, a Government initiative supported by local councils.

He argued that details of issues like the size of a sign or height of rooflines were planning matters “and will be dealt with by people far more qualified to comment than a loose knit group of meddlers”.

And he urged people who did not like what was happening in their local town or village to “get off your backsides and make a difference yourselves – not through moaning and trying to pull businesses down, but by investing in the area you live in. Put your money where your mouth is – start a business, employ local people, take a risk yourself. This is what will create positive change”.

This provoked a flurry of responses in the letters column of The Press’s sister paper, The Gazette & Herald, accusing him of insulting comments and lack of respect.

Charity close to entrepreneur’s heart

IT WAS perhaps the most publicised event that Guy Brudenell had ever experienced – his “leap of faith” from a plane at the same time as Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York. The parachute jump at 12,500 ft with the archbishop in May last year was to generate funds for the Afghanistan Trust, one of the charities dear to Mr Brudenell’s heart. The trust helps support soldiers and their families who have served with the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment in Afghanistan who have been wounded or killed. Mr Brudenell has many friends in the armed forces after being sponsored through university by the 14/20th Kings Hussars, now the King's Royal Hussars, on a three-year short service commission. He had planned to attend Sandhurst military academy, but was reportedly medically discharged after suffering a spinal injury playing rugby. But every year he tried to complete a dangerous or extreme sport in the name of the charity, including bungee jumping over the Victoria Falls on the Zambian border and running the London Marathon. He was at a dinner to raise money for a new academy in Hull, when Dr Sentamu agreed to do the parachute jump with him. The dinner was reportedly organised by Kevin Linfoot, the Yorkshire developer whose business has since also crashed.