A former H-SWAG
(Hemingbrough Sewerage Works Action Group) Member concerned about new Planning
Applications around Orchard End asked for a re-run of this series. It has been sanitised.
The Stench of Sewerage,
Parish Council Deceit, Dishonesty and Blatant Lies. (1)
2009 proved to be a disastrous year
for the Parish Council. Armed services
teach elite troops to maintain standards when the going gets tough. That miserable collection of Councillors
reverted to grubby traits at their first obstacle.
The Parish Council entered 2009 in
complete disarray. The Chairman had
resigned his Office in late 2008 but remained on the Council despite the
Vice-chairperson’s withering attack on the “hostility, mistrust, lack of professionalism and control of the
meetings.”
The Vice-chairman had resigned his
Office around the same time but also remained on the Council. He became angry when he found out Parish
Councillors had referred colleagues to the official Standards Board. He was upset when he wasn’t told of or invited
to the clandestine meeting of a ‘select few Councillors and Clerk’ in Councillors
Jan and Sue Strelczenie’s home to discuss Council business, especially ‘The
Problem Member of the Public’, who kept writing down whatever Councillors said
in public meetings, and the Hagg Lane Green Wars. Even worse, he was ”astonished and bemused to be asked a question in Selby Town Centre -
What is happening at Hemingbrough Parish
Council - which prompted him to think of “the August meeting when elected
representatives walked out”, and then he was contacted by a journalist.
The courteous and thoughtful Parish Clerk
was thinking about another job and maybe smarting from the criticism of his inability to control the warring factions and effectively
perform his role of the Council’s ‘Proper Officer’.
In December 2008, he agreed to tell new
Chairman Jan Strelczenie the public must be given the opportunity to speak at every meeting “unless it is a closed meeting, which would be a rare event indeed.” If only he could have predicted that he would
have to eat his own words a few weeks later!
To make matters worse, Councillors ‘Blackadder’
and ‘He-who-likes-to-listen-to-his-own-voice’ had to play second-fiddle to the
recently elevated Baldrick with his Napoleonic trait of believing he had the
right to rule everybody, and everything. (Same
old dog, same old tricks, but the
public is wiser now.)
Instead of resigning from the Council,
the former Chair and Vice-chairperson stayed put. Knowledgeable observers detected the permanent,
festering resentment that erupted from time to time.
Yorkshire Water stepped Into this seething maelstrom of
frustrated ambitions, petty jealousies and power-lust with a planning
application for a £2 million pound sewerage works near Orchard End where
‘Incomers’ were said to live in new, large houses, not bungalows.
Yorkshire Water knew how to handle planning
applications that would arouse local anxieties.
They must tell the local community of their intentions before they
lodged their application with North Yorkshire County Council. Hemingbrough village had expanded; more
houses and more people meant more waste water and solids, an ageing sewerage
works and new European regulations meant new works. Unfortunately,
they had no experience of dealing with the Hemingbrough Parish Council of 2007
– 2011.
The snow of the previous week had
melted away by 12 February 2009. Parish Councillors
sneaked into their delayed, private, closed-to-the-public meeting of Parish
Councillors that had been set up by the Clerk, B Hopper. From the word “Go”, the planning application
that could affect the lives and property values of Orchard End and Landing Lane
parishioners was mired in controversy that had all the hallmarks of this motley
council crew.
The Hemingbrough Clerk and Chairman
denied they had asked for it to be private and closed to residents – which
would have been a rare event, indeed!
The Council leadership and Clerk were experienced in clandestine
meetings that were closed to even the Vice-chairperson. They knew an open meeting meant details
posted on the Council notice boards, and at least one resident with his pointy
sticks and pointed blog would turn up to watch and listen.
In June 2009, a Director of Yorkshire
Water would confirm, in writing, “Yorkshire
Water did not ask for the meeting to be in private, and simply asked for it
to be held as soon after the initial contact as possible.”
The Hemingbrough Councillors couldn’t sneak
through the meeting room door without controversy and the truth being
challenged. Surely, there could be no
doubt about why they were there.
Clerk Hopper had been specific when he
signed the Calling Notice on 30 January 2009.
“Hemingbrough
Parish Council. Notice of Special,
(closed), Meeting of the Parish Council.
Dear Councillor you are invited to attend a special meeting of
Hemingbrough Parish Council on Thursday 5th February in the Village
Institute at 7.30pm.
The purpose of
the meeting is to hear a representative of Yorkshire Water explain the
company’s plans regarding changes to the local Water treatment Works and to
comment on these plans, at this early stage.” B. Hopper. Clerk to the Parish Council.”
This calling notice was headed
‘Hemingbrough Parish Council’ and referred to the ‘Meeting of the Parish
Council’, twice, and the purpose of the meeting, in only 72 words. It was clearly intended to be a “closed”
meeting. [It took six months for a
resident to locate a copy of that calling notice that Councillors were hiding.]
Yorkshire Water was certain it was
meeting with the Parish Council as it confirmed in writing, “the meeting was
called to provide Hemingbrough Parish Council with information about our
proposals”
