15 August 2017
To
Hemingbrough Parish Council and the Clerk to the Council
·
COUNCILLOR
ROLAND CHILVERS VINDICATED.
·
LAZY
PARISH COUNCILLORS & BULLYING CHAIRMAN SHAMED!
·
FUEL
STORAGE TANKS PLANS AND DRAWING LOCATED UNDER YOUR NOSES!
Would
you buy a Pig in a Poke?
“An
item sold without the buyer knowing its true nature or value,
particularly
when buying without inspecting the item beforehand.”
Would
you buy a Pig in a Poke for one pound? Would
you be suspicious of a parcel of land for a quid? A private Company is entitled to buy as many such
Pigs as it chooses, at its own risk. Hemingbrough
Parish Council, the first tier of Government in England, is NOT entitled to buy
any such Pigs.
The
private “Parish of Hemingbrough Historical / Heritage Society” (PHHHS) may have
bought a very large Pig!
Eddie
Kinsella, Chairman; Les Stebbings, Vice Chair; Susan Strelczenie, Secretary;
Bob Procter, Fund Raising Officer; Mr J. Frank, Project Manager; and ‘Indistinct Signature,’ Treasurer updated
a PHHHS Constitution with their signatures on 18 June 2014. Those active PHHHS project managers had Roland
Chilvers as their Archivist to record what they did. Shortly afterwards, Jan Strelczenie replaced
the ‘Indistinct Signature’ as
Treasurer.
The
active PHHHS managers of Kinsella, Stebbings, Procter and Jan Strelczenie were
either Hemingbrough Parish Councillors or would become Parish Councillors after
the 2015 parish elections. Susan
Strelczenie, wife or partner of Jan, had been a Hemingbrough Parish Councillor
until she lost her Council seat when the close relationships between
Councillors became a local issue, especially as her husband/partner had voted for
her in a co-option, despite professional advice for him not to do so.
Having
bought their Pig for virtually nothing, the PHHHS allegedly took short cuts in
turning it into the Memorial Garden, which all agree, is a better sight than
the derelict Service Station that stood at the main village entrance. PHHHS did not fill in three old, underground
diesel fuel tanks. Now, the PHHHS folly
has been exposed, the massive tanks need to be drained, any contaminated fuel
transported and safely disposed of, and the tanks filled
with concrete slurry
towards the end of the 2017 – a significant expense. PHHHS failed to win a grant to cover the
expense.
The
“Good Councillor’s Guide, essential
guidance for local councillors” a Government publication, is standard
reading for professional Parish Clerks and elected Councillors. It says Councils
cannot buy Pigs in a Poke, and Councillors must safeguard public money. It is specific about “risk management and
possible disaster.”
“The rules set by
Government[i]
are designed to make sure that the council takes no unacceptable risks with
public money. The words risk management should be engraved upon every councillor’s
mind. The good news is that the rules protect you and your council from
possible disaster. Your council should establish a risk management scheme which
highlights every known significant risk in terms of the council’s activities
and makes clear how such risks will be managed.”
Hemingbrough
Parish Council Chairman Strelczenie, in his official role, or as the former or
maybe even current PHHHS Treasurer and project driver, it’s not clear which, - spoke
from the Council Chairman’s seat, but sounded like a PHHHS Officer – to inform Councillors
and the Public that PHHHS bought the land on which the derelict Service Station
stood without documentation. At least, that is what the official Council
minutes say.
PHHHS
was legally entitled to risk the money it raised by donations from residents
and organisations. It was their risk.
At
their April 2017 Parish Council, Councillors faced an unusual piece of
‘correspondence’, as it was called on the Council Agenda, allegedly sneaking a
major issue on to the Council Agenda in a
distinctly unusual way.
PHHHS,
with Council Chairman Jan Strelcenie without his Council hat on, and Susan
Strelczenie allegedly at the helm, proposed the transfer of the Memorial Garden
to public ownership. Allegedly, PHHHS offered no plans, drawings
or detailed specifications. PHHHS
wanted rid of the Pig in a Poke land on which stands the Memorial Garden with
its potentially high rectification costs.
In
other words, PHHHS wanted to foist on to local residents the Pig in a Poke land
without official, technical documentation, and without an official, Parish
Council inspection beforehand. From the
ensuing Council actions, PHHHS, and Jan Strelczenie, expected the Parish
Council to take over the land, the Memorial Garden and the associated costs
without its own risk assessment or inspection.
Classically, this was a Pig in a Poke offer,
despite the Good Councillor’s Guide and Standing Orders.
Two
Councillors, Forbes Davidson, the person who let Council Vice-chairman Bob Procter’s[ii]
private ‘Hall for Hemingbrough Project” details out of the bag recently at a
bowls event, was the proposer of a Motion to take ‘the offer’. John Sedman, who rarely speaks at any Council
Meeting, about anything, ever, seconded the Davidson Motion. The Clerk to the Council. Mrs. Leighton-Eshelby,
allegedly gave no advice to Councillors, as often happens when the Chairman
wants something. Councillors must answer
the allegation that they acted in defiance of the Council’s Standing Orders,
the Good Councillor’s Guide, and common sense.
Only
Davidson, Sedman, J. Strelczenie and Parish Clerk know why they acted as they
did. Experienced Councillors, like
Councillor Chilvers, believe the Council voted in principle to take over the
Memorial Garden only when an independent Risk Assessment said it was safe and
cost effective to do so. No sensible
Councillor would have done otherwise.
Chilvers
tried to warn you all of the folly of the Council accepting a Pig in a Poke
without a formal risk assessment.
Chilvers told you technical plans and drawings must exist for a Service
Station storing inflammable fuels. He
told you the Council should pass a Motion to locate them.
Instead,
you lazy, disinterested Councillors watched him bullied, month after month, by
the Chairman, and did nothing to protect him.
Not one of you, Councillors or Clerk, could be bothered to locate the
drawings and plans and report to the Council.
Having
listened to Councillor Chilvers from the Public Gallery, I took him at his word. I resolved
to find those plans and drawings.
I wanted to ensure the Council did not take over the potentially costly Pig
in a Poke land without a Council risk assessment, from by a private group,
PHHHS, that has insider help on the Parish Council. I wanted to expose your disdain for the
residents you allegedly serve.
I was shocked to
discover the Parish Clerk admitted in the formal accounts for 2016/2017 that
the Council had been building up financial reserves to take over the land and
Memorial Gardens. There was no Council
mandate. Councillors did not know! What significant costs were anticipated? Only the Chairman and Clerk seemed to know
that fact until I objected to the apparent deception in the official accounts!
With
one email and two telephone calls, with very little effort, in other words, I sat
in front of the Selby District Council’s microfiche equipment reading and
filming the full planning application, technical arguments, plans and drawings of
the Service Station and the location of the fuel tanks.
I
suggest you get the Clerk to do the same and include those plans in an
independent Council risk assessment. I
suggest you publicly apologise to Councillor Chilvers, who was trying to do his
Council duty, while you watched the bullying to keep him quiet, and you voted
to exclude him from a meeting. Shame on
you.
It
is all on videotape. By your actions, or
lack of them, I think most of you should get off the Council and let
Hemingbrough start again.
I
also suggest a Freedom of Information request to learn from the Selby Council microfiche
record who accessed the same planning file in the past five years and may have
been lying to the Council!
