Waking from hibernation, it’s hard to differentiate
between dreams, nightmares and reality.
A short stroll in Main Street on Christmas morning cleared my head. That ****** lawnmower is back in
conversations again nine years after it exploded into a Council meeting. So are the £5.00 and £10.00 notes given to
Senior Citizens at Christmas until a few years ago.
The January Parish Council confirmed it. Testosterone-fuelled tensions are
rising. Old stags are gathering their hinds
for the symbolic mating. Bellowing and
roars cross the Council table. As the
May Rut confirms or appoints a new Council Chairman, the clashing of horny antlers
will be heard for a few months.
Politically astute Chairman Strelczenie pushes ahead with
village housekeeping and improvements while some colleagues grind their
axes. Regular visitors to the Bear
Garden public gallery can spot four factions.
Those who want to keep the hardened Old Stag. Those planning to oust him. The Hagg Lane Green Group Protection Fanatics. The private venture Village Hall Group sometimes
mistaken for a Council Committee. There
aren’t many who genuinely get on with all the parish responsibilities without
axes.
Until May, residents cannot be sure which agenda topics
genuinely concern residents, and which are part of the ritual, rutting
season.
The Council shut the public out of a pre-rut warm-up by declaring
discussions of the Village Green Registration Update were not for their ears.
They waited until the December meeting was underway before declaring their
decision instead of listing it in advance on the agenda. Their ploy suggests they were about to
discuss a topic during which they may breach a legal obligation to keep information
confidential. Alternatively, they may
have simply decided they didn’t want the public to know what was going on,
which they shouldn’t do! Either way,
they let the cat out of the bag. The
Hagg Lane Green Wars may have entered a new phase. The private Hagg Lane Green Group wants to
own the land already registered as a Hemingbrough Village Green.
A Councillor mumbled about it at the January meeting
which sounded like ‘no progress’ but it was hard to hear in the public gallery. Deliberately so? This topic brought ‘the Lawnmower’ back into village
conversations. (More later).
The innocuously described agenda item 8(i) “United
Charities” must have been part of the rutting ritual. At least one Councillor must have wanted this
surprising agenda addition to be discussed in public. It harks back to the requirement for the
Council to curtail involvement in the Hemingbrough United Charities (Registered
Number 224203). The Council has the
lawful right only to recruit and appoint Trustees when the Charity formally
notifies it there is a vacancy.
The Press
reported the Council’s inapt connection that brought the ‘Grandiosh of Tosh’ to
prominence and revealed the subsequent shenanigans. Anyone wondering why it surfaced again will
have to rely on the village grapevine as the Item was withdrawn without
discussion.
Maybe the Letter to the Council distributed to Councillors with the
agenda (see below for excerpt) was the reason.
Maybe it reminded them of the official Parish Council statement that
remains on file and their role in withdrawing the Christmas money.
“Statement from the
Chairman of the Parish Council, December 2011”
“Many of you will
already be aware that the Parish Council turned down the donation request from
Hemingbrough United Charities for £1000 this year and I would like to take this
opportunity to explain the reasons for this decision which are twofold.
Firstly, following
an investigation by external auditors, as a result of concerns raised by a
resident, they reported ‘we have concluded that the procedural approach taken
by the Council may have resulted in an unlawful item of expenditure’.
The Council clearly
must take responsibility for the part they played in agreeing donations in
previous years. Secondly, there had been concerns raised by the Charity
Commission itself regarding how the Hemingbrough United Charities was being
administered. They advised that the
Charity was in breach of its Constitution by setting an age limit for
recipients - the Charity was for ”the poor", and poor people come in all
ages not just when they get to 70 years old.
The Parish Council will, of course, continue to support this worthwhile
cause when these issues have been resolved and the Charity is being managed in
line with its Constitution.
Kristina
Wilkinson. Chairman, Hemingbrough Parish
Council”
Anything is possible during the rut! Here is a reminder of the 2016 Rut.
I think it was very fortunate that Councillor Procter did not take over the Council. This view is of the January 2017 Council discussing a planning application for 21+ dwellings on land to the east of School Lane. Councillor Procter and two of his colleagues, a quarter of the Council, are outside the room having declared "interests" in that application. Someone remarked that Procter's scheme to build a village hall might involve the same land wanted for housing.
(To be continued)
