Some
of the actions at Hemingbrough may be unlawful.
Certainly, many are very nasty.
Let’s
start with the Village Grass Cutting Contract.
The Parish
Council has a single, three-part contract.
The first part covers St. Mary’s Church Cemetery and Walkway down to
Oldways. The Church reimburses the Parish
Council for that work. The other two parts cover the village.
The experienced
Clerk to the Council, Julie Leighton-Eshelby, who clerks for three other local
Parish Councils, signed the Contract. She
signed it on 22nd February 2010. It had no end date “after which the contract
will be reviewed”!
The
Contract has been rolled-over by Councillors, most of whom probably don’t have
a copy to enable them to understand what they are approving. Remember, most of these people recently voted
to assert ridiculously incorrect minutes prepared by the Clerk were accurate! Councillors have approved an increase in
charges for the Church grass cutting.
The Clerk confirmed it in her minutes.
The Contract
states, “The Contractor shall be
responsible for the removal and the disposal of waste materials/grassing
cuttings etc” which will be music to the ears of complaining, graveside
mourners and relatives of the deceased in wet weather.
The
Chairman, who admits to having a copy of the contract, told Councillors the Contractor
hadn’t asked for any increase in charges. If the Contractor didn’t ask for an increase,
then who on the Council proposed and seconded an increase? And WHY? The Clerk must have the answers.
The
Chairman led Councillors to believe the Contractor was NOT responsible for
picking up the grass-cuttings.
Whilst
it is not the duty of the Clerk to stop Councillors making prats of themselves,
why didn’t Mrs. Leighton-Eshelby correct the Chairman’s false assertion about
the grass-cuttings? Why didn’t she offer
advice to Councillors about the correct way to contract for services above a
specified value?
Did the
Council’s Internal Auditor get a full briefing from the Clerk about the nature of
the rolling contract of seemingly perpetual duration above a specified value? She didn’t mention a problem with the payments
in 2016/2017 for the Council’s largest contract despite work not done!
Why did
I have to provide a copy of the Contract to the Secretary of the Parochial Church
Council in the absence of one from the Parish Council? Why didn’t the Clerk advise Councillors about
the dubious propriety of a Chairman encouraging a Contractor to ask for an
increase in charges on the public purse?
Unbelievable? Watch the following YouTube Video of the
Chairman, with the Clerk by his side, briefing largely disinterested Councillors!
Chairman
Strelczenie tells grass cutting Contractor to ask for more public money!
