Fishy Politics
at Hemingbrough Parish Council
Why
did experienced Parish Council Chairman Jan Strelczenie, who is experienced in
YLCA matters of the correct and legal ways to conduct a Council, a leader of the
Parish of Hemingbrough Historical Heritage Society (PHHHS) try to rush the
transfer of the Memorial Garden into public ownership without Council due
process?
Why
did the Parish Council accounts for 2016/2017 include covert financing through
the accrual of high reserves to pay for the transfer of the Memorial Garden to the public purse at paltry rates of bank interest without any
Council Resolution or discussion of the financial and technical risks of doing so?
Why
did Chairman Strelczenie vote AGAINST a Council Resolution in August 2017 that
required the Council to conduct a Risk Analysis, as it is required to do, after
PHHHS had made the Memorial Garden totally safe?
Why
didn’t PHHHS share with Councillors the email sent on 30 June 2014 by the
Senior Enforcement Officer of North Yorkshire Trading Standards, Lawrence
Black, to Bob Procter, at that time an Officer of PHHHS and Parish Councillor,
who would become Council Vice-chairman in May 2015, then resign suddenly from the Council without explanation, in July 2017?
Why
didn’t PHHHS follow the recommendation of the Senior Enforcement
Officer?
“THE PREFERRED METHOD OF RENDERING THE
SITE (MEMORIAL SAFE) TOTALLY SAFE WOULD BE TO REMOVE ALL THE TANKS AND
ASSOCIATED PIPEWORK FROM THE GROUND”
Why didn’t Council Vice-chairman Procter
reveal to the Council and Public that North Yorkshire County Council had taken
a charge of £3,387 against the Memorial Garden to recover the costs of filling the
Petrol Tank with BritFoam if the property is sold, and had not been written off
as Strelczenie claims?
Why didn’t
Procter reveal the Enforcement Officer’s advice “IF THEY (three
diesel tanks) ARE TO BE LEFT IN SITU COULD HAVE DEGENERATED TO THE POINT WHERE
THEY MAY BE LEAKING”?
Why
were all three Councillors who objected to the Strelczenie’s rushed transfer of
ownership plan absent from the Tank Inspection Site Meeting of the Council or
PHHHS? (It’s not certain whether it was a Council or PHHHS Inspection)?
Why did Clerk Leighton-Eshelby,
Chairman Strelczenie or Vice-chairman Procter not prepare an announcement of
the Inspection for all Councillors at their Meeting the night before it?
Why were those three Councillors,
Chilvers, Terry and Harrison, kept away?
Why didn’t the experienced Clerk, Mrs.
Julie Leighton-Eshelby, who clerks for a number of Councils, advise the Council
that the Chairman should NOT vote on a Resolution in which he was wearing two
hats, Council and PHHHS, when even experienced Council Watchers in the Public
Gallery knew better BEFORE the vote?
Was this a conspiracy to delay the tied
vote until the September Council? Strelczenie
could have a majority then to defeat the ‘Chilvers’ proposed Resolution that
would be against the PHHHS interests, but
very much in the interests of Hemingbrough residents. Ex-Chairman Drew will have returned with his ‘anti-Chilvers’
voting history, and Bob Procter’s (now resigned) Partner, Councillor Liz Carstairs
may have returned to the Council after she missed the August Council without
her apologies recorded by the Clerk?
Why didn’t the Clerk Leighton-Eshelby tell
Councillor Stebbings, a PHHHS Member, (one
of only three remaining Members, I think, that defies the PHHHS Constitution
and appears to be like Rats having left the sinking ship) shouldn’t vote on
the same Resolution?
Why did Clerk Leighton-Eshelby only make
public her concerns AFTER the Vote had taken place and Chairman Strelczenie had
used his second vote to break a tie?
Why did the Fools, Horses and Peasants on
Hemingbrough Parish Council not know enough about legal Council voting procedures? WHY DID SOME VOTE WITH THE CHAIRMAN? Don't they know about Councils rules, or don't they care?
Something smells very fishy in Hemingbrough, and it’s
not leaking diesel fuel!
Personally, I don’t trust this Council to abide by the rules or tell the truth. If this was a backstreet Club, they could do what they want, but this is the first tier of Government in England.
