Hemingbrough Bear Garden

Thank you, I don't need any more copies.

2012-01-27T14:50:00.001Z

Despite their harrassment - the letter writing to the Archbishop of York, the York Diocesan Secretary, the lies told in the village shop and newspapers, the drunken rampaging around my garden after I asked an awkward question, the staged 'kicking', the lies told in Parish Council, the anonymous blog with its scurrilous prattle, the visits from the boys and girls in blue, the village poster campaign, the one-sided council minutes, the withdrawn council minutes after they had to agree they had invented something they said I said to suit their own ends, the anonymous letters, etc, etc, EVERYTHING I WRITE ON THIS BLOG IS TRUE AND HAS NEVER BEEN CHALLENGED.

On the plus side, I have made many friends in Hemingbrough and some acquaintances who want to slip me envelopes of cash to 'Give 'im another good kickin!'

Selby District Council Standards Committees

2012-01-24T21:51:00.000Z

Snipped from the Selby District Council website today, the highlighting is mine. 56 days? They managed 91, 78 and 95 WEEKS!!! No wonder some Councillors think they can act with impunity month after month after month ...... Professional Standards Committees? Ugh!

27 WEEKS have gone by with the latest one, and I am waiting for the investigation to begin.

Friends are having trouble with their Parish Council.

2012-01-23T07:53:00.003Z

From the Barlby & Osgodby Bear Garden - link on the left.

(In plain English to avoid a bad ‘Horse’s Ass Readability Score’)

There is little chance of Standards Committee people sorting out a renegade Parish Council.

They will not watch what goes on under their noses. One Committee received a complaint signed by ten Hemingbrough residents. They said they all heard the Parish Council Chairman admit he had lied about matters to do with a Yorkshire Water Planning Application. ‘Bang to rights’ as some would say. The Committee refused to investigate or find any matters of fact. Instead, they invited the whole Council for training. Did it do any good? No! Residents are still living with the consequences of letting that belligerent Chairman get away with almost anything. Almost anything.

While Standards Committees avoid rocking the boat and stick to their interpretation of the Members Code of Conduct, residents can have an effect. Ask them in Hemingbrough.

· The Parish Clerk admitted Councillors were frightened of assertive residents because they weren’t smart enough to remember what lies they had told.

· The grumpy old Chairman had to personally apologise in public to a member of the public.

· The deputy high muck-a-muck of YLCA, now the head honcho, had to apologise in writing to the same person.

· The grumpy old Chairman resigned his position, but not his seat on the Council, shortly after a public argument with his Vice-Chairman about a clandestine meeting about the assertive resident.

· The Vice-Chairman resigned his position, but not his seat.

· The Parish Clerk, who let Members with prejudicial interests stay in meetings, found new pastures.

· The Council was paralysed when it came under public scrutiny for its shady practices and Members had to follow the rules.

· Councillors found their antics widely publicised in the ‘Bear Garden Blog’ and local newspapers, which did little for their reputations in the district.

· The Council was forced to open contract proposals in public instead of letting existing contractors carry on so, for example, the grumpy Chairman’s son couldn’t have just carried on with the village grass cutting.

· The bad-tempered, belligerent replacement Chairman, who took part in the co-option of his wife to the Council against the deputy high muck-a-muck’s advice, antagonised residents when he admitted he lied in office, and demolished his reputation.

· The grumpy Chairman was found to have breached the Councillor’s Code of Conduct. You have to deliver the body with fingerprints, photographs and recordings to get the Standards Committee to agree.

· The grumpy Chairman’s son was found to have breached the Councillor’s Code of Conduct.

· The belligerent Chairman was found to have breached the Councillors Code of Conduct (only a tiny bit, according to the Standards Committee, like being only a tiny bit pregnant.)

· The District Council Solicitor had to remove personal, irrelevant, critical comments that favoured a Councillor from one of her official reports when challenged.

· Disgruntled residents came together to find election candidates to take on renegade councillors.

· Allegedly, some district political ambitions were irreparably damaged.

· The ruling clique known locally as “The Labour Group” lost two of its Members, the belligerent Chairman’s wife and the grumpy Chairman’s son at the 2011 election, and its grip on the Council.

· The Council had to abandon its claim to ‘administer’ a local, independent charity and was told by its External Auditor that its procedures may be unlawful.

· A Councillor had to apologise for bringing the Council into disrepute and hasn’t been seen very often in meetings since then.

· The Council stopped appointing only its own Members as Charity Trustees where the grumpy Chairman and his son were the Charity Chairman and sole tenant respectively and ‘financial aid’ was given to wealthy residents not qualified to receive it.

· The Council got a new Chairman and Deputy in 2011; it was worth it!

And so on ........

Residents should take heart. Renegades always act in character. There is always plenty of rope around - Use it!

It’s as easy as learning your 12-times table.

2012-01-21T19:02:00.004Z

To Councillors: From the Standards Board for England “The Code of Conduct May 2007.

“You have a personal interest in a matter if that matter affects the well-being or financial position of you, members of your family .... more than it would affect the majority of people in the ward or electoral division affected by the decision, or in an authority’s area or constituency.

You can only have a prejudicial interest in a matter if it falls into one of the following two categories:

a) The matter affects your financial position OR the financial position of any person or body through whom you have a personal interest. Etc.

If a reasonable member of the public with knowledge of all the relevant facts would think that your judgement of the public interest might be prejudiced, then you have a prejudicial interest.

You must ask yourself whether a member of the public would think that your personal interest was so significant that it would be likely to prejudice your judgement, in other words, the interest must be perceived as likely to harm or impair your ability to judge the public interest.

The nature of the matter is also important, including whether a large number of people are equally affected by it or whether you or a smaller group are particularly affected.

You should clearly act in the public interest and not in the interests of family or close associates.”

To put it in plain, simple words, all the Clerk or Chairman has to do is offer advice to Councillors, If your financial position, OR that of your son, daughter, brother or sister for example, would be likely to be affected by an issue to a greater extent than the majority of the local people, then you have a prejudicial interest in that issue and you cannot even remain in the public gallery to observe the vote on the matter.

To convert that general advice to the particular occasion of the Parish Council that had earlier been advised by a Solicitor at Selby District Council that Councillors should act to remove from the Charity any Trustee/Parish Councillor with a prejudicial interest after the Council had appointed six Trustees instead of three, including the Charity’s only tenant and his father, but they had ignored that advice, meeting in December 2011, I would ask, In the matter of Councillors about to vote to appoint a Charity Trustee, would a Councillor who is already described by the Charity Commission as a “conflicted Trustee” and prevented from staying in any Charity meeting for any discussions to do with the terms, conditions, etc. of his son renting that Charity’s only asset, agricultural land, which the son has done for sixteen or more consecutive years without a rent increase and benefits from Government subsidy on that Charity land, even while his father has been Chairman of the Parish Council and Chairman of the Charity at the same time, and that Councillor is still acting as the Charity Chairman more than one year after the Charity Commission told him he should not do so, make a reasonable person with all the facts believe that the Councillor’s son’s financial position could be affected by the appointment of the only candidate for Trustee to that Charity where there are only three Trustees in total and the conflicted Councillor cannot stay in specified Charity discussions, when the candidate has publicly stated that if appointed a Trustee he would encourage his fellow Trustees to review in a timely manner the value of the Charity’s only asset, that agricultural land with its sole tenant, for the absolute benefit of the lawful charity beneficiaries, by establishing its true value as determined by what any person is willing to pay in a sealed, competitive bid, and to renew his call for the appointment of Trustees who have no prejudicial family ties to the Charity that expose the Charity to unnecessary allegations and prevent the Trustees from doing their duty in all matters concerning the Charity, and any possible consequences of the election of that sole candidate may affect that Councillor’s family to a greater extent than any other family in the parish, and that Councillor’s family relationship may affect his judgement in this matter so that he may have a personal and a prejudicial interest in that election of a Trustee, should he consider leaving the meeting room, and not even sitting in the public seats to observe the vote instead of intending to remain at the Council table where any other Councillor casting their vote under his watchful antagonistic eye may be influenced, especially as Members of that Council had been publicly criticised for retaliating against the public and Councillors who antagonised the leadership of the Council in its 2007-2011 term, and not taking part in the vote?

Simples!

How “advice” becomes “definitive ruling”!

2012-01-19T06:50:00.000Z

Can I Smoke while Praying? No! Can I Pray while Smoking? Yes, of course.

It depends on how you ask the question.

Can I give “a definitive ruling?” No! Can I give helpful “advice and guidance?” Yes, it’s what you are paid to do!

From the Parish Clerk “it is the opinion of the YLCA that it is dangerous for a clerk to give a definitive ruling to a councillor as to personal or prejudicial interests.”

To the Parish Clerk: “I have never suggested the Clerk gives any definitive ruling, I know it's for Councillors to make their own decisions about their declarations, with or without the advice of the Monitoring Officer, and I have sat through many meetings of your experienced, professional predecessor where he saw it as his role to provide "advice" to the Member concerned and Chairman so the Member had 'helpful' guidance.”

My perennial question, “What are we paying for? "

ssssssssssssnake caught of film?

2012-01-16T19:57:00.002Z

Whenever I venture down Landing Lane to take some more photographs of Drax for my www.hemingbrough.net website, it isn’t long before a particular old man follows me to see what I am doing. I wonder if it is the anonymous ssssssssssssnake because when I drove back from my second visit today, there he was again, and as we made eye contact through my windscreen, his chin jutted out in reptilian manner, out came his tongue and his hand came up in a V-sign that reminded me of a snake’s forked tongue. Does he have his CCTV set to recognise my car or does he get text alerts from family members? You wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t tell you, but you know me; nothing I blog has been challenged as being untruthful.

P.S. He issssssssss in the bottom left hand corner. He walked 50 metres past my car then came back again. I locked myself in so he could not accussssssssse me of kicking him again, especially as there were no witnesses - just my mobile voice recorder!

The Barlby PC Chairman demands RESPECT? – see Blog Post below!

2012-01-11T21:54:00.004Z

“Took a serious toll on her health and well being .....”

As an experienced observer and recorder of Parish Council shenanigans when the Council is dominated by a voting clique and the rule book is flouted, I say read the earlier posts on the Barlby Bear Garden Blog (see link below) to learn something of the way in which Councillor North was abused by Chairman Marshall and his LaLa Land Lackeys.

For sheer Pig Ignorance meted out to a member of the public, read the first post which concerns the Council’s Deputy Chairman while he was on official Council business! I felt quite at home after my experiences at Hemingbrough.

I say shame on each and every one of Chairman Marshall’s compliant, hand-raising, LaLa Land Lackeys. I wouldn’t talk to a dog in the way Councillor North had to suffer. When Chairman Marshall demands all recording devices are turned off before the start of the Parish Council meeting, I wonder if it is to prevent anyone from challenging the supposedly official record of the meeting. My pencil and paper do just as well!

I also wonder what is the role of the Selby District Councillors who sit and watch the abuse suffered by these new Councillors for month after month when they get a rude awakening by stepping into the Bear Garden where events are well beyond ‘robust debate’. Can’t they help? “This is worse than Hemingbrough” said an otherwise mute observer at Barlby & Osgodby. What an achievement! And that person should know!

I am reminded of the treatment Councillor Strelczenie dished out to Chairman Kris Wilkinson while others looked on. I also wonder about Selby Council’s Professional Standards Panel and associates led by the Deputy Chief Executive, Jonathan Lund! Ugh!

http://barlbybeargarden.blogspot.com/

Wet Knickers

2012-01-11T07:17:00.000Z

A massive New Year’s outbreak of knicker wetting in Osgodby spread throughout the District and affected some people in Hemingbrough. Like a highly contagious virus, it spread like wildfire and sufferers had to take to their beds. It was very similar to the norovirus in that it was accompanied by vomiting. As there was no specific cure, resident’s had to let it run its course over a couple of days, drinking plenty of fluids while the aches in their sides subsided.

One local lady remarked that it was a particularly unpleasant experience, but it wasn't thought to be dangerous. Everyone recovered within a couple of days without having to see a doctor. Professional advice was to stay at home and don't go near the Parish Council for a while.

(Recent publicity from the 'Selby' Times' & 'Selby Post. These dinosaurs even look the same relics of bygone days)

The cause of the outbreak is alleged to have been sitting through the early January Barlby and Osgodby Parish Council meeting where a majority faction of political friends and allies of our own Strelczenie councillor and ex-councillor still rule the roost. Their ‘Labour Group’ Chairman’s Opening Remarks made it painful to contain the almost irresistible urge to burst out laughing which increased pressure to exploding levels in the nether regions.

It is reported that Chairman Marshall, him of the weak, squeaky voice, screeched at everyone that he was going to have respect. ‘I am going to have respect!!!’, ‘I am the Chairman and Leader of the Council and I am going to have some respect’ were accompanied by his usual finger jabbing and table thumping. ‘I am treated with the utmost respect at County and at Selby District Council.’

The pressures were heightened by the whispered asides from those who have seen Marshall in those chambers, where he is subject to the usual rules and the inmates have not taken over the asylum. One is alleged to have whispered, ‘Respect? Didn’t his Council ask the Police to patrol the January Parish Council meeting?’

Apparently, Chairman Marshall then led his own majority band of willing hand-raisers to agree a 15% increase in the precept to fund ‘Barlby Town Hall’ that may open one day a week after the Hilltop Library is closed by North Yorkshire County Council and will take many years and much money to be converted to an occasional community centre. His earlier agreement to consult residents again about his scheme seems to have been dumped in the pot.

Barlby and Osgodby Parish Council is a dire reminder of the dark days of the Hemingbrough Parish Council 2007–2011 when Strelczenie strutted his stuff on the Mole Hill and on the last bus from Selby on a Saturday afternoon after failing to emulate Chairman Marshall and gain access to a wider political stage.

Beneath contempt

2012-01-10T15:28:00.001Z

In response to all those who keep asking when the former Chairman will be nominated as a 'Waste of Space', I am not wasting this space so will make do with repeating an earlier blog post until my next nomination.

23 June 2011.

“Two sessions - it didn't take long.

Dear Mrs. Wilkinson, Chair, Hemingbrough Parish Council.

I have made a complaint under the Members Code of Conduct about Hemingbrough Parish Councillor J. Strelczenie after his behaviour at last Week's Council meeting. I have cited you and two Councillors as witnesses.

I believe that Councillor J. Strelczenie is not fit to represent Hemingbrough residents at the meetings of the Yorkshire Local Councils Associations which are concerned with maintaining high standards in Parish Council affairs. I am also concerned that your integrity and honesty will be besmirched again in public, this time in front of a wider audience.

For your own protection as well, I recommend Parish Councillors should put his election as a Hemingbrough YLCA representative to the vote to see if Members agree with me. I do not believe the six-month rule that applies to approved motions applies in this case.

My complaint, in summary. is that I was repeatedly accused of conniving with the Parish Council Chairperson, and personally insulted, while in the public seats at Hemingbrough Parish Council on 17 June 2011, in front of members of the public, by Councillor J. Strelczenie speaking in a closed session when I had no chance to repudiate his baseless assertions and remind him that personal insults in such a situation are unacceptable.”

I wonder when those sloths at Selby Council will do something.

Thank you for your interest .....

2012-01-05T23:46:00.003Z

..... even on Christmas & Boxing days. And thank you for your suggestions about the Waste of Space nominations. It's amazing how often the same names crop up.

Have you checked out the anonymous blog that seems to be set up just to spread the Chilvers nonsense and his venom about people at Hagg Lane Green, for example? The cowardly anonymous authors are obsessed by “Who is running the show at Hemingbrough?”, “Who is in control at Hemingbrough?”, and the baloney that only “democratically elected” people should be ‘in charge’.

Nobody is in ‘control’ of Hemingbrough village, although I know one person’s name will spring to mind who would like to be, and thinks he is. The bullying people behind the scurrilous, anonymous content are lacking in courage and can’t accept Hemingbrough is a great place to live and there are lots of people doing great things and some of them collaborate to do even better.

Nobody is running the show at Hemingbrough Parish Council! There is a Chairman of the Council and Councillors. It’s nothing like the old majority voting bloc of 2007-2011. Disgruntled members of that rump still will not vote against Strelczenie and Chilvers in the new Community Council. They are suddenly ‘ill’ or declare they will not take part in votes even though they have no personal or prejudicial interest in a topic. At least that’s openly cowardly!

It’s a shame the Parish Council Chairman and her colleagues have a rump of bitter, vindictive and disruptive people who still moan, “We was robbed” when two of their voting bloc failed to be re-elected and 'they' lost ‘control’ of the council.

They remind me of Laurent Gbagbo. He was 'running the show'. He was ‘in charge’. He ‘controlled’ Cote d’Ivoire. After the 2010 presedential election, he challenged the vote count, alleged fraud, and refused to stand down. He called for the annulment of the results. Crackpot despot!

‘Waste of Space’ Nominations (contd.)

2012-01-05T19:31:00.002Z

The record speaks for itself.

Councillor D. Bilton is nominated for ‘The Bigger ‘Waste of Space’. Maybe it’s a new law, like ‘Murphy’s Law’ - The less they do, the more there is to say about them!

Minutes of the annual general meeting of hemingbrough Parish council held in the village institute on thursday 19th may 2011.

“Prior to the election of the representatives Cllr Bilton stated that he would not be taking any part in the nominations.”

4. election of representatives on various bodies: -
etc.

Agreeing who will do what for the coming year! Bilton clearly didn’t want any part of that! That was the only mention of Bilton; ‘Lights on, nobody at home!’

minutes of meeting of hemingbrough parish council held in the village institute on thursday 19th may 2011 following the agm.

11/101 public forum:-
Cllr Bilton asked a question regarding whether legal advice could be sought for an individual councillor and it was advised by the clerk that legal advice can be sought for the council as a whole but not for an individual.

11/104 declaration of interest

c) Cllr R Chilvers declared a Personal Interest in Item (11/110) Discuss the proposal made by Cllr Bilton regarding the organisation of a Christmas pensioners tea due

d) Cllr D Bilton declared a Personal Interest in Item (11/110) due to this being his proposal and Item (11/112) due to having raised this issue previously with the Parish Council.

11/110 discuss the proposal made by cllr bilton regarding the organisation of a christmas pensioners tea

Cllr Bilton advised that his proposal was the result of the objection raised by Mr Markham to the United Charities Donation.
He reported that the donations were historically food parcels but in recent years due to this being inappropriate it had been agreed that the donation should be monetary.
He advised that as this was a worthwhile charitable cause and in response to the objection instead of donating monies the Parish Council should consider the organisation of an annual event for the pensioners for Hemingbrough.
It was proposed, seconded and agreed with a show of hands that this should be looked into further and Cllr Bilton agreed to make enquiries and give an update at the June Parish Council meeting.

minutes of meeting of hemingbrough parish council held in the village institute on thursday 16^th june 2011 at 7.30pm

f) Cllr D Bilton declared a Personal interest in Item (15 – Not discussed) Update on the proposal made by Cllr Bilton regarding the organisation of a Christmas pensioner’s tea due to this being his proposal and Item (11/129) due to having raised this issue previously with the Parish Council.

g) 11/128 discuss the ownership and ongoing financial and maintenance responsibility for the village entrance structure

h) Cllr Bilton stressed that a lot of work had gone into the project and he proposed that the views of the residents should be obtained via the newsletter but neither proposal was seconded or agreed upon.

i) Cllr’s M Senior and R Drew left the meeting at 10.30pm.

j) Due to time limitations it was agreed that the remaining items on the agenda except for finance would not be discussed and if appropriate would be carried forward to the July agenda.

minutes of meeting of hemingbrough parish council held in the village institute on thursday 23^rd june 2011 at 7.30pm

11/131 apologies for absence: - d bilton

“a feasibility study and report for hemingbrough parish council into the provision of a pensioners (sic) tea. copy for the parish clerk. prepared and presented by councillor david bilton gradiosh. may/june 2011” [32 pages of tosh. See Below]

It would be unkind to make more mockery of the report by the “Grandiosh of Tosh” about his travels around the village, with or without an ass, to probe the ‘Elf & Safe Tea’. Too much mockery can cause inner voices asking countless, negative questions and making disagreeable comparisons until you realise many of the voices are also those of your colleagues.

Of course, you can always go back to the first of a series of blog posts on Thursday 14 July 2010.

minutes of meeting of hemingbrough parish council held in the village institute on thursday 21^st july 2011 at 7.30pm

11/136 parishioners forum:-
Mr D Bilton apologised for bringing the Parish Council into disrepute by publishing incorrect information [32 pages of tosh.] and he also issued an apology to Mrs Harrison due to the fact that she had been named on a blog site.

11/139 chairmans opening remarks:-

The Chairman read out a statement condemning the conduct and behaviour of the Parish Council and Councillor Bilton advised that he supported her statement.

a) Cllr D Bilton declared a Personal interest in Item (11/143) date on the proposal made by councillor bilton regarding the organisation of a christmas pensioners (sic) tea due to this being his proposal.

Councillor Bilton asked the clerk why a copy of the proposal had been given to a member of the public and she explained that she had taken advice and had been told that it should be made available under the Freedom Of Information Act.

Councillor Bilton went on to say that under the circumstances he was withdrawing the report [32 pages of tosh.] and he asked that the Chairman collect all the copies of the report from members of the council and the member of the public who had requested a copy.

He also withdrew the proposal regarding the organisation of a Christmas pensioners tea and the Chairman accepted this. The Chairman also advised that due to the content of the report [32 pages of tosh.] she was intending to propose that the report should not be considered by the Parish Council.

Councillor McCann also commented that he was pleased that Councillor Bilton had withdrawn the report as he was going to propose that the Council did not accept the report. He then handed his copy of the report back to Councillor Bilton.

Councillor Bilton then left the meeting

The Report was not handed back by a Member of the Public, and maybe some Councillors for the first official document destruction by the Parish Council. Copies are worth their weight in gold!

minutes of meeting of hemingbrough parish council held in the village institute on thursday 18^th august 2011 at 7.30pm

No Bilton; No apology for absence.

Following on from the withdrawal of the report produced by Councillor Bilton the clerk noted that she had taken advice from the YLCA and advised the Parish Council of the response she had received.

minutes of meeting of hemingbrough parish council held in the village institute on thursday 15th september 2011 at 7.30pm

11/173 apologies for absence:-
D Bilton

minutes of meeting of hemingbrough parish council held in the village institute on thursday 20^th october 2011 at 7.30pm
11/202 finance:-
Councillor Bilton left the table [but stayed in the meeting room] and took no part in the voting for the charitable donations.
Councillor Bilton returned to the table.

minutes of meeting of hemingbrough parish council held in the village institute on thursday 17^th november 2011 at 7.30pm

11/206 apologies for absence:-
D Bilton.

meeting of hemingbrough parish council held in the village institute on thursday 15^th december 2011 at 7.30pm

no bilton.

Bilton is not listed on the Council’s website as contributing to any Council committee or group for at least the second consecutive four-year term.

Eight months! Not much of a contribution even when he is there. Doesn’t want to take part in committee elections and an important vote??? Wonderful entertainment, though!

'A Waste of Space' Nominations!

2012-01-02T10:50:00.002Z

Team Work and Team Spirit?

We elect Parish Councillors to individually represent the views of all residents within the parish without party political interests unless they declared they were standing for election as a political party candidate. As the first tier of local government, they have responsibility for some local services such as allotments (!) and village halls (!!), deciding by how much to alter the local tax, commenting on parish planning applications, influencing and shaping the development of the parish(!!!), and identifying issues which are important to the lives of the residents they represent.

Plainly, the Parish Councils should not comprise voting blocs; however Hemingbrough Parish Council includes the remnants of the group known locally as the ‘Labour Group’. Until the May 2011 council elections, that majority voting bloc did much to bring the Parish Council into disrepute.

Since those elections, when the then Chairman’s wife and the recent past Chairman’s son failed to be re-elected, that group has contributed little to the new Parish Council, has tried to frustrate and spoil the efforts of the other six Councillors to the extent that the whole Council has produced little of value according to the Chairman who valiantly struggles to make progress.

Members of the public watch with disgust as the remnants of that voting bloc raise points of order, abuse the Chairman, even accuse her of lying while in office, and unnecessarily extend the time of meetings with the consequence that meetings that should last for no more than two hours can last for three and a half hours, and generally impede progress.

Their antics go far beyond “robust debate”. Even the Parish Clerk is alleged to have been making it known in the village how disgusted she was at the antics of Councillor Strelczenie at the December meeting - and she has the power to do something about it!

From notes taken at seven normal parish council meetings, an extraordinary meeting called to agree the council’s accounts because councillors argued for so long that they ran out of time at a normal meeting, and an Annual General Meeting, I can identify those Councillors whom I consider to be ‘A Waste of Space’.

The Parish Council Chairman puts it much more eloquently in the Council minutes and Parish Newsletter when explaining that the Council has initiated and produced virtually nothing in the past seven months.

My first nomination for ‘A Waste of Space’ is Councillor Eddie Kinsella. I struggle to find his name in my copious notes and the Council’s minutes apart from noting that he was absent through illness when the Parish Council had the sensitive task of considering a charity donation request from fellow members of his voting bloc that was turned down by the majority of the Council because the Charity did not conform to its lawful purpose.

He is frequently mute and raises his hand mostly when he sees which way his fellow clique members have voted. He is not listed on the Council’s website as contributing to any Council committee or group. He may still attend the Steering Committee of the local Community Engagement Forum (CEF), a position to which he was appointed by the old council controlled by his political mates, however he is often out of step with the majority of the Council now, he hasn’t been seen at the general meetings of the CEF in recent times and one wonders what views he puts forward if he still has that role.

He is remembered for standing up at a Parish Council Meeting, in his role as Vice-chairman, and swearing “on the Bible” to the general public and Councillors that Councillors had not seen any plans of the proposed Yorkshire Water Hemingbrough Sewerage Works at a particular meeting, after which he was contradicted by a number of Councillors who say they did in fact see plans at the meeting they were discussing, and Yorkshire Water themselves who said in writing that plans were shown to Councillors at that meeting.

I am surprised this nomination for ‘A Waste of Space’ takes so many words to describe. Does the electorate have to suffer another three years of Wasted Space?

16,420 Visitors to the Hemingbrough Bear Garden Blog as the year ends.

2011-12-31T21:34:00.000Z

A person can achieve a lot with personal effort - but as part of a team, that same person can achieve a lot more than the sum of the members in that team. If you add team spirit - the possibilities are limitless despite the turkeys who try to drag the team down.

Kris Wilkinson picked up another admirer this afternoon who congratulated her on putting a bomb under the Parish Council after all these years.

Thank you for all the encouragement, support, offers, contributions, comments, suggestions, etc.

Happy New Year.

See you tomorrow.

Councillor GaGa is at it again.

2011-12-21T18:49:00.002Z

Chilvers must have forgotten that the Parish Council wasted so much time at its October and November meetings that Councillors didn’t get around to talking about an HCAP footpath clearing agenda item. None of the Councillors, or the Clerk, thought it was worth moving the item up the agenda so they could prepare for an early winter and respond to what residents have asked for.

He led the Parish Council team that didn't provide a single grit bin of their own, and took part in last year's arguments about where to put one bin, then didn't bother because nobody could agree where it would go. Riccall Parish Council meanwhile provided 14 grit bins around their village

When the Community HCAP team put together a proposal for the Council to consider in December, Chilvers could have responded with an offer to find some volunteers, even one, to help clear the proposed ‘Safer Winter Walking Route’ that covers the doctors surgery, shops, churches, post office, pubs and schools. He would have been better doddering around the village seeking volunteers instead of rushing to brief the Press. There’s still time for him to contribute something useful to the team effort. The team is waiting .................

It didn’t take long for Chilvers’ views to be put on the Cowardly Ghost’s blog. GaGa! Even the posters seeking volunteers came in for criticism.

Wait until you read his Community Parish Council End of Year Report.

Stocking Fillers

2011-12-16T12:40:00.003Z

It has been an excellent year for local history publications. Treat yourself, have a good laugh at Christmas.

“Purr-fect – avoiding Catwoman’s velvet-clad claws.” [Review: Cat Woman’s claws are retractable, versatile and multi-purpose. She uses them every day, for climbing, scratching, turning and balancing but once a month she has them at full stretch for defending herself and her colleagues against old dogs and demented gerbils who might try to harm them. She should be treated with respect otherwise her quiet, friendly demeanour will turn into a razor-sharp pounce. She doesn’t do it with malicious intent however her hair becomes raised when abused by insecure, Yorkshire misogynists who are under-educated, use poor grammar, are prone to defensiveness and rely on metaphorical sticks to overcome their deficiencies.]

"The Sheriff of Nottingham’s Charity Handbook of Planned Giving to the Wealthy.”

[Review: In the legendary stories, the folk hero activist Robin Hood robbed the rich to give to the poor. His greatest foe was the cowardly, cynical, inept, scheming opportunist, the High Sheriff of Nottingham who was given to violent outbursts whenever he was frustrated. In the legends, the Sheriff’s cunning plans to tax the poor and distribute money to the wealthy were always thwarted by the local activist hero. In real life, there was a High Sheriff of Nottingham, for example, in 1583, the Sheriff was Sir Robert Markham from the nearby settlements of East and West Markham. His ancestors sailed down the River Trent and settled in riverside communities along the Ouse and Derwent rivers where they take a keen interest in local charities.]

“The Hemingbrough Cowardly Ghost Walk.“

“Rambling with Roly – a guide up various garden paths and down the Old Ways of Hemingbrough.”

“The Official History of Hemingbrough Parish Council – in 24 parts.”

“Poles apart – divisions in the Parish Council.”

“A Collection of Resignations by R. Chilvers Esq.”

“Poisoning the Well - pre-emptively presented, perverse piffle.”

“An Epic Journey around the village with an ass, by the Grandiosh of Tosh.”

The last title cannot be ordered from the Parish Clerk as Councillors resolved to collect and burn all the copies in Hemingbrough’s only recorded act of libricide.

Bids can be made on eBay for the only remaining legitimate copy that was discovered under the Freedom of Information before the ‘Parish Thought Police’ moved to censor Parish Council Records but rather stupidly attracted outrage from those who appreciated the side-splitting Report & Recommendations by the local Grandiosh.

The Report has significant curiosity value being that rare item where a Parish Council has officially destroyed it, so it is no longer available under the Freedom of Information Act, but the local Blogger is willing to lend his copy free of charge to anyone who wants an episode of tear-streaming hilarity at the author’s expense.

"False and Untrue" "Unfounded"?

2011-11-25T10:09:00.000Z

Two weeks and still no response from Chilvers Junior to my offer to correct any 'statement' that is "false and untrue" and "unfounded".

Another home visit from the North Yorkshire County Constabulary.....

2011-11-15T10:56:00.009Z

.... courtesy of the Chilvers family of Hemingbrough

As I drifted off to sleep last Sunday night, I was stuck in that place where reality and fantasy mingle in confusion, unsure whether I was awake or dreaming about ex-Parish Councillor Colin Chilvers and his father Parish Councillor Roland Chilvers, ex-chairman of the Parish Council, ex-chairman of the Hagg Lane Green Conservation group, and people are unsure about whether he is the ex-chairman of the Hemingbrough United Charities, or not.

Dad! Dad! I’ve had a letter and I’m frightened to open it.
Why, son?
It’s from 'im!
Who?
That man your wife keeps writing about.
Which one? Give me a clue.
She wrote t’Archbishop about 'im and t’church.
Er .......
She wrote t’ Parish Council about 'im and t’church!
Er .....
You know, you had to give 'im a public apology at the Parish Council when the rest of the Councillors said your behaviour was nothing to do with them and you had to apologise to 'im yourself.
I don’t want to remember that!
You do remember, didn’t you resign the Chairmanship just after that?
I still don’t want to remember that!
You must know, it’s the one who your wife has just written t’paper about, you know, about the church again and 'im looking like that Osama bloke.
Oh, him! The one I say gave me a good kicking but he denies it.
That’s 'im.
Is it thick?
I’m not thick, I’m your son.
No, is the letter thick; is it padded; is it ticking?
No, there’s just a single piece of paper in it.
How do you know it’s from him?
It came registered, was signed for, and it’s got 'is name and postcode on the back of the envelope.
Has he ever threatened you, son?
No, dad.
You should call t’ police, son.
What do I say, dad?

Hello, is that the North Yorkshire County Constabulary?

Hello, Mr. Chilvers. Busy? We certainly are. Even the Hemingbrough crime figures are up for the last few months. We are doing all we can to catch the criminals coming from Hull and West Yorkshire. How can we help you?

A letter? What does it say? You don’t know? You’ve not opened it? Is it thick? No? Is it padded? No? You know who it’s from! Has he threatened you before? No. So, what would you like us to do, Mr. Chilvers? Sorry, what was that again? Take the letter back to him? [Muffled speech like someone has their hand over the phone, then silence.]

Yes, Mr. Chilvers, I am still here. What’s your address? Haven’t we been there earlier this year, after your family was hammering on this gentleman’s door late at night after he asked a question about you at the Parish Council meeting that same night? Yes? I thought it was the same address. Someone will be along to pick up the letter later. What’s that? Your daughter’s been in the Bear Garden? She is an adult, isn’t she? Is that the same daughter who was photographed drunkenly hammering on the same gentleman’s door, rampaging through his garden and upsetting his neighbours? It is. Well, she’s old enough to know bears can bite back. Somebody will be with you when we have the time.

Selby Desk? Hello, Sarge. Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha. Go on, then!

Mr. Markham? Good evening. [A very polite, police officer came into the house taking great care not to leave dirty footprints and eventually we agreed to stand in the kitchen. You could not fault constabulary courtesy and consideration.]

I’ve brought back your letter to Colin Chilvers. He’s frightened to open it. It’s nothing to do with us really, but you know ...

May I open it in front of you and show you the contents? Thank you. As you can see it’s just a response to his piece in the Selby Post; an offer to apologise for and correct anything I have said about him, if he has evidence that what I said is wrong.
It’s nothing to do with us really ....
Do you recognise me?
No.
Do you read the Selby Times?
No.
Then you will not have seen the recent outrageous letter from Mrs. Chilvers; she links me and Remembrance Sunday with Osama?
It’s nothing to do with us really ....
You know about your colleagues having been here after his daughter ...... etc.
It’s nothing to do with us really. You seem like a nice gentleman.
Thank you.
I’ll call him and tell him what was in the letter. It’s nothing to do with us really. Goodbye.
Thank you.

Hello mate? Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha, Ha-ha.

The reality part is that I did send the letter shown below by registered mail, it was signed for at the Chilvers house, it wasn't opened, the Police were called, they did collect the letter, bring it back to me unopened, explained Colin Chilvers was frightened to open it, I did open it in front of the police officer, who read it, made the comments attributed to her, and did take the letter away promising to call Colin Chilvers and tell him what was in the letter, the facts referred to in the imaginary telephone conversations, and the later village-wide laughter.

Now I have the confirmation from the Post Office that my registered letter was delivered to Colin Chilvers, and the confirmation that the Police have told him what it said. I wonder where Colin’s letter is? Was it taken back to him, is it in a police file?

This is what you can get when you ask questions that some Parish Councillors don’t like.

You couldn’t make it up!

Comments:

Having read the latest post through tears of laughter, only to realise these events actually happened, please allow me to sum up the perpetrators in two words:

Mrs Jean Chilvers (6)

2011-10-31T10:21:00.000Z

Unintended consequences. Friends at the gym couldn’t use the Jacuzzi after their exercise sessions last Friday. They were peeing themselves with laughter about Mrs. Chilvers’ vulgar letter to the newspaper and didn’t want to contaminate the water.

Naturally, they all want to know why she might have done that. I told them I don’t know for sure but maybe it’s because I have been reporting that the individual benefitting most from the supposedly independent Hemingbrough United Charities, THAT WAS SET UP TO BENEFIT THE POOR OF HEMINGBROUGH PARISH, that the Parish Council claimed it administered when it had no lawful right to do so, was Parish Councillor Colin Chilvers, son of the long-serving Charity Chairman, Parish Councillor and sometime Parish Council Chairman, Roland Chilvers.

Colin Chilvers leased the Charity’s only asset, agricultural land, without a rent increase for sixteen years, and it is alleged that yearly Government subsidies exceed what he pays the charity in rent.

His father went nuts when that news hit the fan! Nice work if you can get it!

Now, even more people know! Of course, it may not be that at all, maybe it’s just that time of the month.

Old witches are said to be more active at Halloween.

Mrs. Jean Chilvers (5)

2011-10-30T12:17:00.001Z

Here is another genuine offer that was not taken up by Roland Chilvers, [See Mrs. Jean Chilvers (4)] and not publicised by Mrs. Chilvers when you would think she would like to expose the 'Cowardly Ghost' that has so much to say about her husband on the spiteful, malicious and libellous anonymous 'Watcher' blog.

"Sunday, 15 May 2011

Exposing ‘The Ghost’ (6)

This is an offer to Councillor Mr. Roland Chilvers, formerly Chairman of Hemingbrough’s Hagg Lane Green Conservation Group (resigned November 2007), Chairman of Hemingbrough Parish Council (resigned office October 2008) and Chairman of Hemingbrough United Charities (told by the Charity Commission in November 2010 “it would not be best practice in the circumstances for Mr Chilvers to be Chairman”, and “the trustees review and reappoint the position of Chairman as soon as possible.”)

I offer you, without qualification, my thirty years experience of painstaking, forensic analysis to identify the cowardly liar who writes, directs and controls the 43 works referred to in recent Bear Garden Blog posts, who has laid a trail of evidence towards your door, for I am certain that you would wish to identify the person who has studied your name in the public records and carried on a sustained, shameful campaign of spiteful and dishonest comments for many months.

We can be almost certain the cowardly ‘Ghost’ would not register a blog in its own name; actions suggest ‘Ghost’ would hide behind a female, even a granddaughter or friend of a relative, who may not have obvious connections with Hemingbrough, but may have connections with Bishop Burton College.

We could confirm the accuracy of certain statements by, for example, asking the Hagg Lane Green Group to check their minutes on Tuesday night to see what is recorded about the competition that led to an award and a resignation. We could check with Parish Councillors to see who knew the presumably confidential number of votes cast for people offering themselves for co-option in 2007, [the June 2007 Council Minutes do not record either the names or the votes cast for the unsuccessful candidates!], and who was on the interviewing panel for the new Parish Clerk and who knew the names of the applicants, because those names were not made public.

We could compare our various pieces of correspondence with the Charity Commission to identify the individual who was told so much about the Charity’s lease and other matters that they could produce nine items ‘in a nutshell’. That individual was certainly not a member of the public, so our search would be considerably narrowed. Another ‘Freedom of Information Act’ request should work nicely.

I hope we share an interest in identifying who would accuse, without any truth in the matter, a local Church Officer of ‘dismissing’ a Parochial Council Secretary. I have a particular interest in identifying who would tell the world at large I had been to see my doctor and posed the question, “Is Greig Markham ill?”

We could help some of your colleagues by exposing who would accuse them of an offence under the Data Protection Act by revealing the existence of a tenancy agreement between the Charity and your son when you had said long before, and on a number of occasions, that the land your son rents from the Charity is poorly drained and of little value. I recall the occasions well because I was left wondering why he rented such apparently worthless land.

We would not be alone; we are assured of support from the many armchair analysts who have already contributed information about, for example, copies of the United Charities Constitution.

We would be serving the local community because when the new Parish Council meets for the first time on Thursday next, ‘Ghost’s’ cowardly claims and fabrications will undoubtedly cause Members to look searchingly at each of their colleagues, weigh in the balance what they know, and wonder if they have a Ghost, a Snake, or both sitting in their midst.

If the shameful ‘Ghost’ is sitting in their midst, and it is likely from the ‘nutshell’ claims of what the Charity Commission told it, the new Community Parish Council elected by residents will be in danger from its very first meeting."

Mrs. Jean Chilvers (4)

2011-10-28T16:40:00.000+01:00

A friend has told me the website managed by some sad old git that we refer to as “The Cowardly Ghost”, another (?) creature with inside knowledge from the Parish Council that vomits its anonymous bile over all and sundry, is lamenting the loss of the village history written by Roland Chilvers, he with the distinctive rural, literary profile, from the Parish Council website.

Mrs. Jean Chilvers hasn’t given any publicity to my offer to host her husband’s considerable work so it is preserved for posterity. Could it be that one persona forgot to tell the other persona of the offer? I didn’t get any response, unless the recent letter to the Selby Times is it! Turn the other cheek, old man, and consider a genuine offer for the good of the village.

“Subject: Your section of the Parish Council Website

Date: 18/09/2011 13:36:52 GMT Daylight Time

Mr. Chilvers,

I was disappointed to hear that your village history section will be removed from the Parish Council’s website and you do not intend to have it hosted elsewhere. I have always commended your efforts to ensure local history items are preserved.

To ensure your collection continues to be available for a wide audience would you like to consider a section under your name on www.hemingbrough.net?

My site already contains a Parish History but we approach it from very different viewpoints and there is not too much overlap.

Greig Markham”

Mrs. Jean Chilvers (3)

2011-10-26T21:46:00.022+01:00

My chin is raised, making it easier to look down my nose at Mrs Jean Chilvers, the corner of my lip is tightened and slightly raised on the right side of my face, I have a slight smile at being called a community activist, member of the Hemingbrough Action Plan group, and a people’s champion, my finger is pointed accusingly as I convey my feelings of pure and utter contempt as she sought, yet again, to draw the Church into the Parish Council controversies because a photograph of me from many years ago that is already well known to the Hemingbrough Church Ladies Group, caused my friends to nickname me Osama bin Markham as they knew I had lived in the Middle East, travelled extensively throughout the region, and made many friends there.

Her husband gave up the chairmanship of the Parish Council shortly after he had had to give me a public apology for his behaviour at the Council; he, with his son, was found to have contravened the Members Code of Conduct for not following that fundamental obligation of all Councillors, that of leaving the Council meeting when one has a prejudicial interest to avoid at least the accusation that one’s very presence may influence other Councillors; and .... oh, why bother - Bear Garden Blog readers will know the details about him stepping down as Chairman of the Hagg Lane Green Conservation Group, being told by the Charity Commission he should not stand as Chairman again, etc., etc.

It saddens me that the Chilvers have made three separate attempts to link local political controversies and the Church, which needs all the support it can get for the way it continues to support or comfort families on joyous, solemn and sad occasions. Such behaviour reminds me of the biblical betrayal three times before the cock crowed.
(Click to enlarge)

From the ENORMOUS Post Bag:

Vicious and vulgar!
Who would want to live near such a person?
More ‘supporters’ plotting their get away from your village?

From my Pit Pony: Does anybody remember the fear of “Reds under the Beds” in the 60’s? It looks like we now have our own first case of Islamophobia in the village. Is there other logical excuse for the irrational comparison of a recognised community activist with Osama Bin Laden?

Does Mrs Jean Chilvers really believe that going to the press with her ridiculous allegations was anything other than a cheap, nasty and totally ridiculous stunt?

Did she really think that your photograph was anything like Osma Bin Laden? I think there is only one thing to say:
SHOULD HAVE GONE TO SPECSAVERS!

نعود الى الشرق الاوسط. هل على وظيفة جيدة

Selby Times never prompt me to do anything but I do like Ben Laden caricature. Maybe you should get bandages to go as the invisible man, or even paint yourself in invisible ink!!

If I remember correctly, Fuzzy Wuzzy was still loved even though he had no hair. Incidentally, are all 'character' bears male, if so we females need a new role model. Especially given today's Royal accession decision.
Often baited Assertive Parish Council member (NOT HEMINGBROUGH)

I saw her giving you the middle-finger 'half-Chilvers salute' as it's called round here, when she finished work in Londis. I thought, there he is, putting up posters for the Church in his spare time, and she is confirming her reputation in the village. Probably learned it from her Mother-in-law.

Look here Markham, this nonsense that you are involved in has to stop, no more dressing up! The memsahib is very upset at your picture appearing in the local press wearing dark glasses. I ask you, dark glasses indeed – in broad daylight! It’s enough to upset the locals. Have you no sense!

Now we hear in the local rag that some woman thinks you are that monster Bin Laden. Never realised that dark glasses were the hallmark of arab terrorists though, thought it was stretching it a bit far. The village must have seemed to be full of damned terrorists this summer – makes you wonder what was in those ice creams they were carrying. I shall have to take my revolver out when I go out for our rations if this goes on.

It’s time you realised that these people have lived sheltered lives, next thing they could be accusing you of being from Mars. So stop this bloody nonsense of prancing about in dark glasses as if you are an Arab. You're not undercover in the desert now! You're retired, remember?

I was taking the memsahib to the Colonel’s “Desert Song” themed party this week end. It makes me shudder to think what would have happened if the CIA wallahs had seen us if dark glasses can have this effect on these people. You have ruined our little get together, the memsahib is in tears and she now has doubts about our old friend TE Lawrence!
Major Ed Ition

Stop Press - Has another ObL lookalike been spotted, masquerading as a contestant on a television game show? Get your poison pen out Mrs. C!

Have you checked; has he gone away in his caravan? He usually does when he's done something like setting the Police on yer.

Do you know if the couple of men going round the village passing themselves off as Mormons were really from the CIA? I think you should have been told.

That woman must be really silly to have taken that picture seriously - how often did she see bin Laden in sunglasses and a beanie hat!!! Actually, if it said you were a secret member of the Garden Gnome Lookalike Society, I might have believed it!

An Avid Reader

We are disturbed about the information from your village. Mrs. C. has had you under surveillance for a long time. She knows you lived in and travelled throughout the Middle East. She says you support a familiar figure known throughout the world; a man with a long white beard. She says he has lots of supporters who help him move elusively, slipping from country to country with ease, always in the dead of night. She says his trips are meticulously planned and executed. He will spend up to a year preparing his surprises. She thinks he will be visiting you in Hemingbrough within weeks. We know his usual mode of transport is 'unconventional'. The only other information we have is that he always wears a version of the eastern style of dress coloured like the setting desert sun. You are under observation. If this man arrives in the dead of night, you will be reported to Mrs. C. no matter what time of night it is. We know who he is, where you live and her phone number. One of our drones captured his likeness. See below.

"Yeah, verily, the Lord threw those that prostesteth against the Moneylenders out of the Temple, saying "Sleep not in thy tents, be they from the place they call Millets or even the North Face, for the Temple Elders at the Parish Council maketh much before ye came to dwell in this place."

For once I am lost for words; please don't think that Hemingbrough is made up of people like the Chilvers. Fortunately there are some lovely, honest, kind and helpful people living in the village. It’s about time now that people see them for what they are - sad individuals whom you should feel sorry for. Why don't they just bow out with some grace before they go any further? Sorry. UNoWhu

Pathetic! Vindictive! Smacking of desperation. I expect Mrs. Chilvers will now learn how quickly a nickname will stick because surely, irrespective of who is eventually revealed as 'Gutless Snake', she will always be known as 'Mrs. Chilverssssssss'. A. Follower

Mrs. Jean Chilvers (2)

2011-10-26T08:47:00.005+01:00

How can a detailed letter be shrouded by a Cloak of Anonymity? “ (See the Post below).

The author or authors wanted the letter read out at the Parish Council when there were no members of the public present so Councillors could have a good laugh, make their usual vulgar comments and share it with their friends and relatives for a rancid gossip, and the Clerk could minute a letter had been received without giving the detail of who had sent it or the specific claims in it. (His email of 27 March).

Because he read it out, “as instructed”, but he didn’t do it in a closed session of the Council, when I heard about it from a friendly Councillor, I claimed the Clerk had read it in a session that was open to the public so it was discoverable under the Freedom of Information Act. He agreed, “As it is clearly in the public domain then you should be given the opportunity to consider the statement made and respond appropriately.”

My response was to publish the letter and remove the Cloak of Anonymity so everyone would know who had written it, what it contained, and how the Church was to be an innocent victim of Parish Council chicanery. Parish Council tomfoolery is best dealt with head to head, toe to toe, even if the architects are left to fester and become increasingly consumed by hatred .

A popular saying is that events happen in threes. A letter to the Archbishop of York, a letter to the Parish Council disadvantaging the Church .....?

Added later:
Please, no more jokes about giving Councillor Chilvers a good kicking. And no more offers for a repeat performance. I say it was a put up job to get me kicked out of council meetings. It spectacularly backfired given the number of people who want to shake my hand. It’s best forgotten, in my opinion. It’s difficult though. At last week’s meeting, Chilvers declared a prejudicial interest in a planning application and correctly left the room when the matter came up for discussion.

As he approached the public seats, I moved my size 11, steel-toe-capped boots well out of the way to avoid any trouble, but he came right over to the seats and told my friends, “He kicked me you know. He put me in hospital for a day.” and added to the person sitting next to me, something like, ‘And she came round to my house causing trouble’ pointing to the Chairman. He hadn’t realised he was talking to the Chairman’s husband. That’s another Chilvers foot right in it.
One hopes he did not hear the derisive laughter as he closed the door behind himself.

Councillors were in a particularly turgid mood that night, and everything was going at a snail’s pace as they tried to avoid getting as far as some of the priority matters stuffed down the back of the agenda, (the meeting was abandoned at 11pm without them completing the agenda). I decided to leave early.

That led to a quandary in the public seats. Chilvers was outside; on his own! Who would escort me to my car? Opinion was that if I left on my own, a moment or two after I drove away, he might be writhing on the floor claiming I had given him another good kicking. I kid you not; I had an escort to my car. Such is life in and around Hemingbrough Parish Council.

Mrs Jean Chilvers

2011-10-24T18:10:00.003+01:00

On 13 March 2009, Mrs. Jean Chilvers wrote to the Parish Council as follows: “Mr. Chairman, and members of Hemingbrough Parish Council,

I wish this to be read out to the members of Hemingbrough Parish Council at the March 2009 P.C. meeting under correspondence. We had intended to donate our fourth book of Hemingbrough to St Mary’s Church to raise funds. Due to the hostile nature of comments against my family and the Parish Council by Mr Greig Markham, the Honorary Secretary to the Parochial Council, regretfully after much thought I have convinced my husband to withdraw our offer and I wish the item to be placed on the April Agenda for the P C members to consider another worthy cause if we go ahead. Mrs J Chilvers”

The “hostile” comments included those that led to her husband and son being found to have been in breach of the 2001 Members’ Code of Conduct – and paragraphs 9 and 12 of the 2007 code by not withdrawing from the Council chamber when they both had prejudicial interests.

Mrs. Jean Chilvers and her husband wanted the letter read out under the Cloak of Anonymity. I challenged the Parish Clerk for doing so and he replied that he had only done as instructed (!!!), but I was correct in insisting that the statement and the identity of the letter writer, Mrs Jean Chilvers, be made public. It is interesting to note her peremptory style. ‘I wish it to be read out' and 'I wish the item to be placed on the P.C. agenda!’ She hadn’t written to the Church making the offer, or withdrawing it, and I would have known as Secretary to the Church Council. She did write to the Archbishop of York about me though, and was politely turned away!

To be fair to this lady, the ensuing, local, widespread ridicule contained the widely-held opinion that the letters may have been written by her husband hiding behind her skirts.

Early in the week starting 17^th October 2011, the Parish Council received an anonymous letter from Hemingbrough’s ‘Gutless Snake’ that likes to send anonymous letters with a distinctive peasant-like literary fingerprint to residents condemning in particular the Council leadership of Kris Wilkinson and Richard Drew, and the Hagg Lane Green Conservation Group members, saying amongst other things, “I will categorically state, I was preparing to make a personal financial offer in the form of a donation, ... however due to the strident nature of the blogger ... I withheld the offer”.

That same gutless,anonymous letter made personal remarks about me.

On the 18^th October 2011, I received an email from the Deputy Editor of the 'Selby Times'. He has received a letter from Mrs. Jean Chilvers that made him shake his head in amazement, containing some personal thoughts about me and the Church again; he didn’t know that the remarks made by Mrs. Jean Chilvers are in the same vein as those in the Gutless Snake’s anonymous letter to the Parish Council.

If I say that Mrs. Jean Chilvers’ husband, Councillor Roland Chilvers, will be lying if he says again the Parish Council did not appoint six Councillors as Trustees at the Hemingbrough United Charities (more than half the Parish Council so they could have a commanding majority on votes about Charity affairs), (you know, the one where Chilvers was Chairman, etc,. and his Parish Councillor son did not get a rent increase for 16 years, etc.) as he did last Thursday night, then he subsequently admitted the Council had done so during some rambling, burbling tale about having done it “only at Christmas” to deliver cards and money around the village, I will do it publicly, nose to nose, toe to toe, armed with the Council minutes of 15 May 2008, 16 July 2009 and 20 August 2009, for example.

The Parish Clerk and Councillors should take note of those particular references. The Clerk told the Council’s External Auditor that only four Trustees ‘had been advised to the Charity Commission’, which is correct, when the issue was how many Trustees the Parish Council appointed, so I have a good idea of where she got that dissembling information from, certainly not the Parish Council Records.

Perhaps this kind of anonymous bile is what turns the Hagg Lane Green Group members into 'Mute Newts' when they get to the Parish Council. Man up!

I have nothing but pure and utter contempt for people who seek the Cloak of Anonymity when pouring out their bile.

2011-10-23T20:45:00.001+01:00

The 13 October Bubwith Parish Council notes have arrived while the Hemingbrough Parish Council Minutes of 15 September are still not on its website.

It’s Shameful. The Bubwith Parish Council shows what a good Clerk and Councillors can do. Their notes are about Community Action.

Hemingbrough has ‘Disruptive Disgraced Dinosaurs’ fighting 'Mute Newts’ while the Chairman referees.
Councillors dedicated to the good of the village? Not at the Parish Council, they're not. They should all be ashamed of themselves.

Two neighbouring Bear Gardens!

2011-10-23T07:41:00.002+01:00

This will appear on both the Hemingbrough and Barlby Bear Garden Blogs so readers can see the connections.

Hemingbrough and Barlby & Osgodby parishes are not too far apart. Both have Councils that are divided and troubled by internal strife. Parish Councils should not be political. They should be made up of independent individuals acting in the best interests of their community unless those individuals declared a political affiliation on their nomination forms. None did.

I have been watching and listening to Hemingbrough Parish Council for 3½ years. Nothing I have written about that Council has been challenged for being wrong or even inaccurate no matter how apparently unbelievable and ludicrous. I offer to change and apologise for anything that is wrong. I do not write anonymous letters or blogs. Most of what I write is witnessed. Some Councillors don’t like my writing style.

The dominant group known as the ‘Labour Party Group’ in the 2007-2011 Hemingbrough Council was a disaster. Two of their Members failed to be re-elected in May 2011 and that ‘Labour Party Group’ then became the disruptive minority. Councillor Roland Chilvers frequently criticises me for using the term the ‘Labour Party Group’ and keeps chuntering on about there being no justification for that label, but then he is approaching his dotage.

Kris Wilkinson, the new Hemingbrough Council Chairman said in July 2011 “This Parish Council has lost sight of its objectives. It exposes itself to criticism. It’s absolutely disrespectful behaviour is more suited to the school playground. I have heard your derogatory comments about Councillors and members of the public. Some Councillors have their own agenda and are intent on disruption.” That’s sufficient official confirmation for me.

The Selby District Council Professional Standards people and the Monitoring Officer had no practical effect on the disruptive elements even after ten residents signed a complaint confirming they had heard the Chairman, Jan Strelczenie, admit he had lied to Councillors and the Public about three items to do with the Yorkshire Water planning application in Hemingbrough. They invited Strelczenie and his whole Council for training! Residents never did understand how you can train a Parish Council Chairman not to lie while in office.

The disruptive element lied through their minutes. The Parish Clerk had to admit that the dominant clique had approved as an accurate legal record the minutes that I then forced him to remove from the public notice boards. That is what happens when the Clerk is too close to the Council and does not fulfil the duty of independent Proper Officer. He had, after all, written the lie. He admitted that Councillors had lied and fabricated something about me. The Chairman wanted to say something particular to suit himself, so they made up a question they said I had asked, but forgot I always write my questions and read them to the Council so I have a record of exactly what I said.

The list of unbelievable actions is detailed in the Hemingbrough Bear Garden Blog; from a Councillor’s wife, Mrs. J. Chilvers, writing to the Archbishop of York about me, to her husband accusing me of kicking him and putting him in hospital for a day which allowed his friend and political ally, Cllr. J. Strelczenie to tell the Police that he wanted me banned from going to Council meetings. While I am applauded by many residents for giving a Councillor a good kicking, I firmly maintain I did not and it was in my opinion a staged event. It did not help that Cllr. Chilvers had earlier had to give me a personal apology in front of the Council and the Council’s professional adviser when the Council turned on him for his behaviour and refused to be associated with his apology. He resigned the Chairmanship shortly afterwards citing pressure of work.

Thinking a small clique of Councillors knows best, a dominant voting bloc, proceedings suspended in chaos, Councillors threatening to go outside for a fight, unlawful actions, retaliation against anyone who asked ‘difficult’ questions or commented unfavourably on their actions, fabricated minutes, lies, a compliant Clerk who resigned, and a seemingly endless list of unbelievable events tore that Council apart and still affects village life. It would be a shame if their way of behaving was found elsewhere.

So, was there a dominant ‘Labour Party Group’ in Hemingbrough and are there similarities between two neighbouring Councils that are divided and troubled by internal strife?

(Click the pictures to enlarge)

In the May 2003 elections, Chilvers and Strelczenie had their Selby District political ambitions thwarted when they were defeated by David and Kay McSherry. The Labour Party is common to Strelczenie who was ignominiously defeated, (Barlby readers will have to forgive me for explaining the meaning of long words for some of the Hemingbrough Councillors – ignominious means very embarrassing, especially because of making one seem very unsuccessful or unimportant - less than 15% of the vote) and Cllrs Duckett and Marshall. Parish Cllr. Strelczenie has recently found a stage on which he can declaim (make a speech) about his unfair treatment at the hands of the electorate – the last bus from Selby on a Saturday afternoon, where he is called ‘Gobby’.

In the 2007 District Council elections, Hemingbrough Parish Cllr. Sheila Bygrave and her husband were listed on the nomination form for R. Chilvers, the Labour Party candidate. I noted Cllr. Bygrave’s phoney claim at a Hemingbrough Council meeting that she had no links to the Labour Party while Chilvers was chuntering on about NO EVIDENCE for calling them the ‘Labour Party Gang’.

The 2007 District results were a success for Cllrs. Duckett and Marshall representing the Labour Party in Barlby while the supposed Strelczenie husband and wife ‘dream team’ was bluntly rejected and Chilvers failed yet again, this time as the Labour Party Candidate. One can only imagine the determination of that failed trio to strut their stuff in the tiny Village Institute once a month that normally houses the pre-school children after having been denied access to the Selby Council chamber, other than as failed candidates sitting in the public seats. Residents would like the Parish Council to move away from the Institute in case the pre-school children atmosphere in the day affects the Labour Party Gang of Councillors at night.

For the North Yorkshire County Council elections in 2009 there is a direct connection between Cllr. Duckett for the Labour Party and the two Strelczenies and a veritable (genuine, actual) plethora (excess, ~~overabundance~~ glut) of Chilvers, husband and wife, (Mrs Jean Chilvers is an occasional critical letter writer to the local newspapers, however local belief is that it is really her husband hiding behind her skirts and using her name), son (another Hemingbrough keep-it-in-the-family parish councillor who ... oh, never mind!) and daughter-in-law.

The 2010 General Election saw the familiar names come together yet again under the Labour Party banner.

For the 2011 District Council elections, the ‘Dream Team’ Strelczenie candidates had disappeared and Jan Strelczenie appeared as only a ‘Proposer’ for a candidate from Kellington standing for the Hemingbrough Ward. Nobody saw Strelczenie at the May election; rumour was he had gone abroad for a while. Maybe the Labour Party didn’t want a local Hemingbrough candidate after all the bad publicity of the previous three years. They could have fielded two candidates, but opted for only one.

The May 2011 Parish Elections resulted in a change in Hemingbrough with two genuine independent Councillors, Wilkinson and Drew, being elected to replace a Chilvers and a Strelczenie.

A dominant ‘Labour Party Gang’ in Hemingbrough? You bet your ass there was (No, not the ass that may have accompanied Cllr. Bilton on his embarrassing, intrepid journey around the village that took him close to the Bowling Club – a local joke to be found in the Bear Garden archive!) Links to Barlby Parish Council? You can bet another ass on that. Are there more similarities between two neighbouring Parish Councils that are divided and troubled by internal strife? I hope not.

The morals seem to me to be ‘Do not insult the Electorate’, ‘Do your independent Duty’, and for the residents, ‘Don’t give up hope’. From the lofty ambitions of District and County representation to strutting your stuff in the local bus aisle and disrupting a new Community Parish Council is ignominious. (Remember to see above for the meaning.)

Dear Honorable and Erudite brother of the quill

2011-10-22T15:15:00.003+01:00

I have expended a diminutive section of today’s post petite dejeneur, as we of the educated classes are apt to designate our morning ritual of croissants and coffee, examining your literary missives on the electronic communication blog.

I have to inform you, in a demonstrative yet democratic manner, that I believe that a recent commercial communication delivered at my residence in recent days may have a potential correlation to the anonymous communiqué issued by the Cowardly Snake. In this modest publication from the California Gardens I discover that they beseech members of the public that they are in possession of “Our infamous good quality winter pansies.”

I wonder if perchance this literary malfunction is endemic among the proletariat of your neighbourhood or could it possibly be the merest indication that Gutless Snake is offering his scholarly facility for reward amongst the commercial establishments of our environs?

I know that you will understand my desire to retain anonymity in the midst of this trying and difficult time.

So I must perforce sign myself simply as

M. Roly Seau Chic

Comment:

Mon Dieu! Roly Seau Chic ! Ma tante s’appelle Hyacinth Bouqet, c’est ne pas Seau Chic!

(For those having forgotten their basic school French - My God! Roly Posh Bucket! My aunt is called Hyacinth Bouqet, she is not a posh bucket!

P.S. You will have to wait a little while longer to learn what this intellectual pygmy means by "surpassed by the incomparable, inept and consummate act .... Thank you for all your suggestions. 'Inept' is the antonym (hey Snake, that means opposite) of 'consumate'. The riotous laughter you may have heard was caused by your emails. The pen can be mighty cruel. Be careful when you drive by the Snake, concentrate on the traffic.)

The gutless snake among us!

2011-10-22T10:00:00.001+01:00

The second extract from the Gutless Snake's anonymous letter. It really, really, doesn’t like the Parish Council Leadership of Kris Wilkinson and Richard Drew. Why doesn’t it have the courage to put its name to its concerns?

(Click to enlarge)

“I trust this letter does not receive the same discord due to the severity of issues discussed later within”

What does that mean? It sounds like the writer was smacked on the head at school a long time ago. I can imagine the social-climbing snob Hyacinth Bucket from ‘Keeping up Appearances’ talking to her friends in the pig factory like that.

I am sure I have seen a recent Parish Council report that snipes at Councillor Drew who is greatly respected for his charity work. I think it was the report written by Councillor David Bilton in which he brought the Parish Council into disrepute and for which he had to apologise. Most Councillors will not be able to check if it was because they wanted the report withdrawn and destroyed and asked me to return my copy. Fat chance! (there is no possibility of that happening).

I am sure Kris, Richard and I would rather comment on something positive that this bunch does. Another fat chance?

O.K. O.K. Responding to all the requests:

2011-10-21T19:42:00.001+01:00

Here’s the first extract from the most recent anonymous letter. They are usually written by offensive and spiteful people to try and cause distress and mental anguish. They lack the guts to put their name to their bile. Usually they are suffering from envy, jealousy, sexual frustration and are discontent with their sad lives.

The Gutless Snake’s literary style is that of a peasant trying to convey that they are more important and educated than they are, like an incompetent has-been trying to cover up inadequacies by using long, flowery phrases, for example, “I furthermore indisputably and legitimately encourage ...”, “I have a elevated moral belief ....” and “surpassed by the incomparable, inept and consummate act .....” COMPLETE AND UTTER TOSH!

What kind of person writes like that? Suggestions to the usual email address. The Police had an interesting suggestion.

Take this example about our favourite Girly who tries to keep the demented gerbils under control.

(Click to enlarge)

Clucking bell! What does it mean? Snake likes the words ‘democracy’, ‘democratic’ and incumbents. Incumbents? Haven’t we seen that word recently in a Council report?

Amazing co-incidence

2011-10-21T15:12:00.004+01:00

The Parish Council is far too busy dealing with the disruptive behaviour of Councillors Chilvers and Strelczenie to achieve very much. I understand Cllr. Chilvers had one of the Hagg Lane Green Group Members in his sights again after I left last night.

As you read what I said to the Council at the Parishioner’s Forum, remember that while I was reading it, someone from the ‘Selby Times’ was trying to contact me because they have received a letter signed by Mrs. Jean Chilvers, wife of Councillor Roland Chilvers, that contains sentiments akin to those expressed in the anonymous letter.

“I can shed some light on the anonymous letter about the Parish Council that all Councillors and the Clerk have received recently.

It is factually incorrect about me and your Chairman, and it is libellous.
The photograph of me is genuine and has not been modified by a computer programme like PaintShopPro. I am not ashamed of how and why I looked like that at that time. I would caution all of you not to voice any conclusions similar to those in the letter. My long Middle East connections are well known so it was not unusual for my friends to have nicknamed me that way.

The ‘Gutless Snake’ who writes anonymous letters as described in the Hemingbrough Bear Garden Blog is responsible for the letter you received. Most of you would not know that as you don’t have the original letters for comparison. The Snake’s series of anonymous letters contains information known only to people attending parish council meetings.

I thank Councillor McCann for giving me his unopened copy so the contents have not been contaminated and are available for forensic examination.

All the material is now in the possession of the Police.

Their initial examination suggests the Gutless Snake once considered itself to be superior to the group in which it slithered but it became severely embarrassed by its own shortcomings when it was confronted by a more intelligent person. One of the tell-tale clues is the use of incorrect, unfamiliar, complex words as that intellectual pygmy and its collaborators struggle with their own inadequacies.

The Police also have a copy of the document you strived so hard to destroy, without success; that is Councillor Bilton’s Report and Recommendations about an Elf & Safe Tea Party.

I am not the only person in this room that believes the ‘Gutless Snake’ is in the midst of you tonight. Thank you.”

Response to comments:

Presumably sometime in the past five years the 'Gutless Snake' and ‘Mrs J. Chilvers’ must have visited my Family History web site at http://themarkhams.tribalpages.com and then at exactly the same time decided to put pen to paper in a similar manner. It’s an American site and is likely to be found only by historians. Have a look.

I wonder how ‘Mrs J. Chilvers’ came to the same idea as the Gutless Snake at the same time. It’s not the first time ‘Mrs. J Chilvers’ has written about me. She wrote to the Archbishop of York’s office and was told very politely my voluntary work as Parochial Church Council Secretary to support the Church had nothing to do with the Parish Council where her husband and son have been found to be in breach of the Member’s Code of Conduct and her son failed to be re-elected to the Council, and I exposed the fact that her husband had been the Chairman of an independent Charity to give money to the poor and the Parish Council at the same time, and that Charity was discriminating against the needy under the age of 70, and the Charity Commission told her husband that he should not be the Charity Chairman when it was time for a change, and her son had been a Parish Councillor and that Charity’s only tenant of local agricultural land and somehow his rent had not been increased for sixteen years but increasing amounts of public money were being given by the Parish Council to the Charity which carried out no other fund raising activities, and her son had damaged a village gas pipe and electricity cable in separate incidents and both times the Parish Council had paid his accidental or negligent costs because they alleged he did not have the third party insurance to cover his work, and when I asked about her husband and son at one particular Parish Council meeting I had her family hammering drunkenly on my door very late at night, alarming my neighbours and I had to call the Police, and .... I could go on, but enough is enough!

It's official now.

2011-10-21T14:21:00.000+01:00

As a short speech marking the end of the first six months in the life of the Hemingbrough Community Parish Council it was not what residents wanted to hear.

With a note of welcome honesty, sadness, and maybe despair, Kris Wilkinson, Chairman of the Council since her election in May 2011 answered a resident making her first visit to the Parishioner’s Forum to ask why the first Parish Council Newsletter was filled mostly with the achievements of the independent Hemingbrough Community Action Plan Group. Kris said “I’m sorry. We (the Parish Council) don’t appear to have achieved that much, and that’s being as honest as I can. I struggled to fill it with anything the parish council had done.”

I don’t understand. I have been to the Hagg Lane Green Conservation Group Committee meetings, listened to, taken part in and thoroughly enjoyed their enthusiastic sessions where so much is agreed and delivered for the benefit of residents. They are helpful, co-operative and they enjoy themselves. They are a model of how people can work together productively. Most residents value and enjoy their efforts and can look forward to them arranging for Father Christmas to come to Hagg Lane Green on Saturday 10 December to talk to the village children.

But when the Hagg Lane Green Group people get to the Parish Council they go immediately into ‘MUTE NEWT’ mode, and that’s the kindest way of describing them there.

It must be the presence and disruptive behaviour of Chilvers and Strelczenie who have that effect on them. Whatever the reason, and maybe it's just that they are too nice, the Community Parish Council has done ‘Sweet Fanny Adams’ in six months, and that’s official now.

MUTE NEWTS. MAN UP!

2011-10-19T17:38:00.005+01:00

Kris Wilkinson, Parish Council Chairman, needs the active support of the Councillors to achieve what the residents want.

J. Strelczenie’s Hemingbrough Parish Council of 2010/2011 was so constipated by internal strife, private agendas and making war on the Hagg Lane Green Conservation Group that it failed to spend almost £9,000 (40% of its precept income) on the residents. Council Staff costs were 37% of its spending! That Parish Council was so constipated that it could not even organise one new grit bin because it couldn’t make up its mind where to put it, when the number one issue last year was the unsafe pavements during the cold, snowy winter. Bubwith Parish Council hired a Mini Digger to keep the pavements clear. Hemingbrough has a plant hire company in the village but that disgraceful Parish Council just sat around and argued.

Nobody could have been more pleased than me when Councillor Chilvers’ mostly-silent son failed to be re-elected to the Council and Chairman Strelczenie’s wife failed to gain a seat and he was no longer in a position to take part himself in her co-option to the Council against the advice of the Clerk and the Council’s professional advisers. The election result broke the voting bloc known locally as the “The Labour Group” and promised a new start, a new Community Council.

You may recall the election leaflet delivered to every house in the village. The Councillors who joined together promised much. After their election, they asked for time to make a difference. Fair enough. NOW, THAT TIME IS UP, THEY WILL HAVE HAD SIX MONTHS WHEN THEY COME TOGETHER ON THURSDAY NIGHT.

Some people start slowly and gently and build up to a swelling crescendo and climax, some just go Wham Bang and are straight into it. The ‘Mute Newts’, as they are called now, have had enough time given their advanced years, to wake up, get out of ‘Victim Mode’, speak up, hold up their hands and get on with the job they were elected to do. If they can get out of ‘Victim Mode’ perhaps they will stop the Strelczenie/Chilvers disruptive duo trying to lead the Chairman up the Garden Path. The male ‘Mute Newts’ especially should be ashamed of themselves for letting Strelczenie and Chilvers talk to their Chairman like they do, month after month. What have they done to protect her apart from wring their hands, stare at their fingernails and go tut tut!

Man Up, each of you, and stop the disgraceful behaviour, or slink back to your own wives and think of how it would be if someone talked to your wife like that!

Man up as well and do something about the ‘Gutless Snake’ that slithers around you with its anonymous bile.

The Council’s half yearly accounts will show if this new Council has been as constipated as the last one. The single Parish Newsletter that the Council (the Chairman, actually) has just managed to produce in six months is a welcome change in the information it conveys, however almost everything in there is NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PARISH COUNCIL! Take out the work done by the Hemingbrough Community Action Plan Group, which included getting the Parish Council to do something about a Grit Bin before the forecasted heavy snow returns, and information from North Yorkshire County Council, then you are left with a bald statement that some of the Parish Councillors (Wilkinson, Senior & McCann, and their families and a few residents), spent a Saturday cleaning up and making safe the semi-derelict garage at the village entrance. Look at the Council’s agendas and see how little they planned to achieve.

If you are critical of the Newsletter format, wonder how it got into that state. The Chairman’s Newsletter that was passed to the Clerk for printing was an A4 size coloured piece. How did it get into the small, hard-to-read A5 black and white version? Ineptitude, sabotage, or something else? Whoever ordered a print run without having a proof copy to approve? Couldn’t the Council afford to have it done again without distributing that embarrassment? Sinister? Stoopid, for sure.

Thank Goodness the Chairman is going to the Council on Thursday to try to breathe some life back into it with a list of ideas that the residents have said they want. If the two disruptive Councillors continue to gnaw and scratch like demented Gerbils, and Councillor Bilton, who has recently had to apologise to the Council for bringing it into disrepute, ignores the sentiments of some fellow Councillors who want him to resign, at least the five Mute Newts and the Chairman have the opportunity to do what residents want.

MAN UP!

Councillors are comparing notes ready for Thursday night .....

2011-10-18T20:50:00.000+01:00

..... about who could be Hemingbrough's Gutless Snake!

Gutless Snake has been inactive for a few months but one of it's last snaky observations was about Harrision: "four years and hardly a worthwhile contribution, doesn’t make eye contact." Who has been around that long and thinks it can see where Harrison is looking?

A tale of three Parish Councils.

2011-09-21T12:05:00.000+01:00

Bubwith Parish Council. 8 September.
3 pages of Extracts and News published on 21 September - available in the Village Shop, Doctor’s Surgery and emailed to a circulation list.
The Parish Clerk, Steve Young, has the accredited certificate of competence (CiLCA) for the role of Parish Clerk. The Councillors want residents to know what’s happening.

Hemingbrough Parish Council 2007-2011.

Chairman Chilvers refused to consider making draft minutes available until they had been “approved” by the next month’s Council. His successor, Chairman Strelczenie and his cronies, including the Clerk, made the minutes subject to the Freedom of Information Act with a fee and are remembered for Councillors in the minority group refusing to agree minutes as a true and accurate record, because in their opinion, they were a fabrication, and Strelczenie’s retort “We can do anything we like with the minutes!”

Hemingbrough ‘Community’ Parish Council May 2011.

When the Council was asked to publish draft minutes within a reasonable time after the meeting, something their professional advisers endorse in the interest of open government, and a practice that has been commonplace for the past five years, they refused to consider it.

These totally dysfunctional Councillors with their own personal agendas, according to their own Chairman, who spend much of each Council fighting amongst themselves, are content to continue with the practice of having a Council on 15 September, ‘approving’ the minutes on 20 October, five weeks later, and publishing them on 24 October so residents cannot comment on them at the Council’s Open Forum before 17 November, nine weeks later.

These elected representatives have the audacity to claim they are dedicated to the good of the village. Are they knaves, fools, liars or ‘Mute Newts’? Make up your own mind!

The Information Commissioner says “every public authority is required to publish certain information, in keeping with the Model Publication Scheme. As a general rule, you should publish minutes and agendas of public meetings and any background documents which are referred to in the agenda or minutes, or were circulated in preparation for the meeting. These are considered part of the agenda.”

Regular Bear Garden Blog readers know these Hemingbrough Councillors even try to retrieve and destroy background documents that were circulated in preparation for the meeting and published under the Freedom of Information Act.

If our inexperienced Chairman had a Clerk like they have in Bubwith, she would not be led up the garden path so often and would really know how to sort out this Council so it lives up to the published election pledges of those who campaigned with her.

The women of Hemingbrough are delighted

2011-09-19T22:47:00.000+01:00

Reports have arrived of ‘Big Gob’, as they call him on the last bus from Selby on a Saturday afternoon, boring his captive audience with monotonous, wearisome tales of the previous Parish Council meeting, forgetting to say ‘Our Girl’ puts him in his place time after time, after time.

The weary travellers exchange jokes about the demented Gerbil with thwarted aspirations to be half a ‘District Councillor Dream Team’ having to make do with the bus aisle instead of the Selby Council Chamber. They can’t wait to get off the bus when sniggers can become loud laughter.

More whining and whingeing!

2011-09-18T09:35:00.000+01:00

All the Parish Council had to do between May and September was get their own website details right about which Councillors were appointed to which Committees. Simples? Not for this lot!

From the corrections Councillor McCann read out to the Parish Clerk, and her subsequent comments, it was clear she has very little understanding of this fundamental matter, which of course led to her advising the Chairman to appoint Members to the ridiculous United Charities Committee and has taken four months to correct.

“I only agreed I would change agendas and minutes on the website. I did not agree that I would do anything else”.

It beggars belief: glaring errors were not corrected for four months either because she hadn’t agreed she would do it, or because she didn’t understand they were errors. Either way, it is unacceptable.

It’s the same with the details about the Hemingbrough Charity – the page that she just corrected says, "HEMINGBROUGH UNITED CHARITIES was established in 1639 by William Widhouse, who gave several acres of land to be let for agricultural purposes, the income to be used to support the elderly of the Parish of Hemingbrough."

That is wrong and raises false expectations amongst the residents. If she seeks confirmation, all she has to do is look above the Vestry door in the Church or refer to Charity Commission paperwork presumably obtainable from the same person who told her that only four Trustees had been advised to the Charity Commission when the Parish paperwork shows six Trustees were appointed by the Parish Council.

We may not have “poor people” in the Parish today, to use the archaic language of the Charity Schedule, however we do have parents, for example, who could do with some financial support when buying school uniforms, and they are not elderly. By maintaining this fiction about the elderly, this Parish Council reinforces the unlawful practice of their Members who they appointed as Trustees who make payments to unqualified residents and discriminate by age against those who are most deserving.

It’s not surprising Councillor Senior has resigned his place on the Charity. The other two Councillors should do likewise then those deserving and qualified residents can get some financial support, as William Widhouse intended.

Two whining, whingeing, bugger’s muddles with the Parish Council as the common denominator. Maybe the Council Chairman can sort this one out as well. As the French say informally, “Chapeau, Kris!”

“He’s experienced in shallow digging”

2011-09-16T08:04:00.002+01:00

Tyzzer’s disease, the most common infection in gerbils, is caused by bacteria and stress. It can be recognised by ruffled fur, lethargy, a hunched posture, sudden outbursts and constipation followed by explosive diarrhoea. It spreads quickly between gerbils in close contact.

It is particularly nasty when spread by monster flies escaping from sewerage works, especially those that feed where the human excrement is exceptionally virulent.

Separating fact from fiction and hard data from supposition is hard. Technically, humans should not get Tyzzers’s Disease but that’s what they say about Mad Cow Disease too. Social stress triggers within one’s own community can bring on an attack at any time. These are very individualized, as one person’s likes can have another person shaking in their boots, which is why it is best to separate creatures with the same genetic temper.

“Hagg Lane Green” and “Ken McCann” are well known triggers in the Bear Garden and are best avoided. The “Mute Newt Group” rarely utters such words but last night the Clerk slipped both in to the Agenda, maybe in all innocence or to retaliate for some as yet unknown reason. Either way, the result was the same.

First the ruffled fur, although that has been much in evidence since May when Colin Chilvers and Susan Strelczenie failed to be re-elected to the Parish Council, or in the case of Mrs. Strelczenie “re-co-opted” with the help of her husband.

Then the lethargy, presumably caused by the stunning realisation that the Rodents had lost control of the Council in May and their dysfunctional, bullying ways and personal agendas could not be waved through by 7 votes to 4.

The hunched posture and close proximity were more warning signs of an imminent explosion, especially when the creatures sit so close one wonders if they are about to rub noses.

“Agenda item. Reimburse Mr. K. McCann (Out of Pocket Expenses) £45.71.“ There it was, the trigger, the rodent equivalent of a red rag to a bull, the provocative mention of Maggie Thatcher to a Pit Deputy, it was enough.

From my seat, I could see the sudden change from constipated thought to diarrhoea of the mouth with that petulant, whining tone that makes one think one should not mock the afflicted.

Digging holes? Is he a cowboy? Is he experienced? What qualifications does he have? Does he have a certificate?

Maybe Councillor Chilvers was recalling the time when his son, Parish Councillor Colin Chilvers had been digging up the village by arrangement with the Parish Council Chairman, his dad, and had fractured a gas pipe and cut an electricity cable in two separate incidents and the Parish Council, which meant the residents, had had to stump up hundreds of quid to pay for his accidental or negligent damage because he claimed he did not have the insurance cover to pay his own costs, and that lunacy had got both father and son into trouble with Selby Council under the Members Code of Conduct and exposed the unlawful practice of Hemingbrough Councillors with prejudicial interests staying in meetings to watch who voted for and against them.

Whatever thoughts were running through his mind, Chilvers hadn’t stopped to appreciate that Councillor McCann was being reimbursed only for the materials he had bought to make safe some posts and bollards near the village duck pond. Chilvers didn’t stop to think that Councillor McCann’s work was unpaid and done in the evening after a full day’s work and at the weekend. Chilvers rarely stops to think, and his rodent companion usually gets the wrong end of the pit deputy’s stick!

The Chairman calmly stated “He’s experienced in shallow digging” every time Chilvers came up with another lunatic question. Eventually, fellow rodent Strelczenie leaned in close and said “Stoppit Roland” “Stoppit Roland” which seems to have a soothing effect.

A quick glance around the public seats suggested we were all of like mind - if Councillor McCann is experienced in shallow digging, perhaps he could bury the infuriating rodents.

Meanwhile the Chairman, in increasingly exasperated tones at each Parish Council, keeps asking “Why are you like that, Roland”? Why did you say that, Roland?”

Let’s get on with the shallow digging.

Comment from 'Gerbil Droppings'

Ancient gerbils, when they’re ill

Lots of toxins do they spill
On all around they vent their spleen
That’s all there is for a has been!

F*** All 'Appens!

2011-09-15T14:20:00.001+01:00

Thank you for the suggestion that I could take Parish Councillors for a ride in my car.

Sweet Fanny Adams - to put it politely!

2011-09-15T08:26:00.002+01:00

What a bunch of time wasters and people promising much and delivering Sweet Fanny Adams! Give us more time? To do what, exactly?

By tonight, this so called ‘Community’ Parish Council has had seven meetings since the election; an Annual General Meeting, 5 Parish Councils and an extraordinary Parish Council because they spent so long arguing at one meeting they ran out of time to complete their duty to finalise the parish accounts.

Useless Parish Councillors with inflated egos

Idling through their meetings, or having a doze
With agendas of free teas
And pensioners and newts
Complaints, Malfunction - our slumbering mutes
[Thank you, Bard. Youve got them, exactly.]

Their Agendas will confirm the Chairman’s rebuke that Councillors are totally dysfunctional, following personal agendas and not serving the residents.

The MAY AGM

A simple task to Elect of Officers and Representatives.
1. Election of Chairman and Vice Chairman for 2011/2012
2. Signing of Acceptance of Office statements for the above positions.
3. Acceptance of Apologises for Absence
4. Election of Representatives on various bodies:-
     a) Hemingbrough United Charities Sub Committee (3 representatives)
          One Representative – Two Years
          Two Representatives – Four Years
     b) Hemingbrough Institute & Playing Fields Committee (2 representatives plus a nominated substitute)
     c) Drax Power Station Liaison Committee (1 representative)
     d) YLCA Selby Branch (2 representatives)
     e) Community Engagement Forum ( 3 representatives to include Cllr E Kinsella - Committee Member )
     f) Plasmor Liaison Group ( 2 representatives)

A complete cock up! Experienced Councillors and the Parish Clerk fooled their new Chairman into appointing a ridiculous Committee so some thought they could grab power over the independent charity as Trustees, then they had egg over their faces when they had to rescind their stupid decision and at the SEPTEMBER meeting tonight they will obtain the final signature for the special resolution required to reverse the appointment of United Charities Subcommittee Representatives and Discuss amendments to be made to the list of Councillors and their elected duties on the Parish Council website.

Five months for Sweet F.A!

The MAY Parish Council
Common to each Council are the same administrative duties:
Listen to the report, if in attendance, on general policing matters and raise issues of concern. Chairman’s Opening Remarks. Accept Apologies for Absence. Clerk’s Report. Declare any personal/prejudicial interests. Confirmation of Minutes of previous Meeting. Report on Matters arising from the minutes not covered elsewhere on the Agenda. Finance: a) Agree and sign cheques for Payment. Advice of Correspondence Received, and decide action to be taken, where appropriate. Consider Planning Applications Received and Decide on advice to S.D.C. Hear reports from Committees.

Councillors themselves have remarked on the time wasting, Points of Order raised by those Councillors who lost control of the Council at the May election when the wife of the then Chairman and the son of the past Chairman failed to be re-elected, shameful arguments and disagreements between members. The public watches the tiresome and tedious proceedings with disgust.

When will the Chairman use the THREE MINUTE RULE? Maybe nobody has told her about it!

What else did they do? Any ambitious agenda or programme to do something for residents? No. Just a few fine words probably copied from the Internet, talking and arguing amongst themselves.

Discuss and Consider concerns raised regarding the Village Entrance Structure. Discuss the proposal made by Cllr Bilton regarding the organisation of a Christmas pensioners tea. Discuss and Consider issue raised regarding Charitable Donation pledges. Discuss correspondence received in relation to unpaid out of pocket expenses owed to previous grass cutting contractor from years ago. Update on Traffic Calming - School Road.

The JUNE Parish Council
Usual and necessary administrative matters.

Discuss and Consider the Appointment of United Charities Sub Committee Representatives arising from the AGM – sorting out their cock up.

Consider and Agree on the Management of the Parish Council Newsletter and Web Site – residents haven’t seen either yet.
Discuss the preparation required for the Hemingbrough Parish Council Plan – No such thing and never discussed again. The Community Action Plan Group will give them something to do soon and some people say everything should be left to the Parish Council.
Discuss the Ownership and Ongoing Financial/Maintenance Responsibility for the Village Entrance Structure. More argument amongst themselves. How the majority faction was screwed and now claim, "It’s in Cliffe and nothing to do with us anymore" – even though Hemingbrough Parish Council holds the structure licence.
Consider and Decide on style of text and wording for Village Entrance Sign. Screwed again, worthless hot air. There was no consideration and decision.
Discuss and Consider Hemingbrough Parish Council’s Duty Of Care. Still waiting to be discussed in September!
Update on the proposal made by Cllr Bilton regarding the organisation of a Christmas pensioners tea. Argument and accusations across the table that are still rumbling on. The Council eventually makes the report available under the Freedom of Information Act then asks resident “CAN WE HAVE OUR REPORT BACK?” Everything to do with this swept under the carpet and nothing achieved except calls for the author to resign, and the Council agreeing in principle to spend money “instead” of giving it to a named Charity that they control.
Update on Traffic Calming - School Road.
Sweet FA.!

The JULY Parish Council
Usual and necessary administrative matters.

Discuss and consider the special resolution required to reverse the appointment of United Charities Subcommittee Representatives arising from the AGM held on Thursday 19^th May 2011. Still talking about their cock up.

Discuss unresolved proposals regarding the village entrance structure. Sweet F.A. achieved by the new community Councillors.
Update on the proposal made by Councillor Bilton regarding the organisation of a Christmas pensioners tea. See above.
Discuss and Consider Hemingbrough Parish Council’s Duty of Care. See above, still sweet FA.
Discuss possesionary title of Parish Council land. They can’t even get the terminology right. Not discussed, held over to next meeting, when not discussed again and held over to next meeting, by which time it has vanished from the agenda. Sweet F.A.
Update on Hemingbrough Community Action Plan – this means talking about another group’s work, not actually doing anything themselves Sweet F.A.
Update on Traffic Calming – School Road. See above.

The AUGUST Parish Council.

Usual and necessary administrative matters.

Discuss and Consider the special resolution required to reverse the appointment of United Charities Subcommittee Representatives. Still haven’t sorted out their cock up!

Hemingbrough Parish Council’s Safety Duty of Care (If Available) Still sweet F.A.
Discuss and Consider the Selby District Council Preferred Site Allocations for Hemingbrough. Nobody from the Council bothered to go and listen and understand.
Discuss Possessory title of Parish Council land. Progress, sort of, they got the spelling right – no discussion and now dropped altogether.
Hemingbrough Community Action Plan – still talking about what other have achieved.
Update on Traffic Calming – let’s keep putting it on the agenda and it may look like we are doing something.
Sweet F. A!

The SEPTEMBER Parish Council

Usual and necessary administrative matters.

Discuss correspondence received from Mazars in relation to the objection to the accounts.
Obtain the final signature for the special resolution required to reverse the appointment of United Charities Subcommittee Representatives arising from the AGM held on Thursday 19^th May 2011.
Discuss amendments to the Parish Council website.
Discuss and Consider Press Statement of 4^th August 2011.
Discuss and Consider the report produced by Councillor Kinsella re Hemingbrough Parish Council’s Safety Duty of Care (If Available) HOW MANY MORE TIMES BEFORE THAY ACTUALLY DISCUSS AND DO SOMETHING?
Discuss and Consider the Winter Maintenance Parish and Town Scheme.
Update on Hemingbrough Community Action Plan – TALKING ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE’S ACHIEVEMENTS AGAIN.
Update on the Identification and Protection of Trees and Hedges. TALKING ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE’S request that this lot DO SOMETHING!
Update on the Provision of Allotments in Hemingbrough. TALKING ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE’S request that this lot DO SOMETHING!
Advice of correspondence received, and decide on action to be taken, where appropriate:- BUT LET’S CONCEAL THE LETTER HANDED TO THE CLERK ABOUT A COUNCILLOR APPOINTED BY THE COUNCIL YEARS AGO TO BE A CHARITY TRUSTEE WHO HAS JUST RESIGNED BECAUSE OF THE WAY THE CHARITY IS MANAGED BY TWO OF HIS PARISH COUNCIL COLLEAGUES ACTING AS TRUSTEES.

After 5 months, election pledges, fine words, what has this lot achieved? They haven’t even sorted out the mess they made on their first night.

Working for residents? Do what’s in the best interest of the village? Go play with your newts and leave the fine words on the internet instead of copying and pasting them into a report!

Councillors should have joined the Community Action Plan Group that has done a village-wide survey of residents' views about what would make Hemingbrough a better place to live, initiated a number of projects, will shorty publish their survey results and pass on projects to the Parish Council that doesn't seem to know what residents want, and all since July at a cost of £40.

That's what can be achieved by a group of people working together. Hats off to Kris, the Parish Council Chairman, at least she joined one group that does something.

"Put some distance between" means ....

2011-09-14T17:04:00.000+01:00

.... to deliberately try and make a relationship seem less close or friendly, sometimes with the intention to deceive.

“We have concluded that it is possible that the procedural approach taken by the [Hemingbrough Parish] Council may have resulted in an unlawful item of expenditure. Mazars, Appointed Auditor.”

My recent open letter to the Chairman of the Parish Council includes:

· Parish Council administered independent registered charity with no such lawful right.

· All Trustees and the Charity’s sole tenant were Parish Councillors.

· Unauthorised Parish Council website manipulation.

· No Trustee fund raising activities – just increasing yearly donations from their Parish Council funds.

· Prejudicial interests arising from family connections.

· The sole Tenant of the Charity’s land, until recently a Parish Councillor, the son of the Charity Chairman and one-time Parish Council Chairman was on the same yearly rent for sixteen years.

· Parish Council Clerk’s dissembling testimony ‘confuses’ Auditor.

· Missing £1,000 Parish Council donation in 2010 Charity Accounts.

· Call for Trustees [Parish Councillors] R. Chilvers & S. Bygrave to resign.

· Call to end the folly of Parish Councillors appointing only themselves as Charity Trustees with no independent scrutiny.

“In considering your objection, we have concluded that it is possible that the procedural approach taken by the Council may have resulted in an unlawful item of expenditure. However, we have exercised our discretion not to seek a declaration from the court, because the amount [£900] is small in comparison with the costs that would be incurred in so doing. Under section 17(4) of the Act, you have a right of appeal to the Court against our decision not to apply to the court for a declaration that an item of account is contrary to the law.” Mazars LLP. Appointed Auditors.

I have until 23 September 2011 to appeal against the decision of Mazars, Hemingbrough Parish Council’s external Auditor, not to apply to the Court for a declaration that the Hemingbrough Parish Council’s payment of £900 to the Hemingbrough United Charities is contrary to the law.

I have decided not to apply for such a declaration on two grounds; the first being that I do not want to put the Parish Council to the expense of such an application when they have already incurred unnecessary costs by its procedural approach, and secondly, because you have shown a determination since your election to the Council Chairmanship in May 2011 to help me sort out this “can of worms”, to use the Councillors’ own description of its administration of this so called Independent Charity."

Now we have the resignation of a long standing Trustee who was appointed by the Parish Council who agrees with my analysis from his insider knowledge, because in his opinion he cannot get the other two Trustees [Parish Councillors] to regularise Charity matters.

And his resignation letter is omitted from the Parish Council 'correspondence received'!

If this lot tells me today is Wednesday, I would check it, twice!

2011-09-14T14:52:00.001+01:00

Dear Mrs. Wilkinson, Chairman, Hemingbrough Parish Council

Subject: Notice of Parish Council 15 September 2011.

The Agenda item (20) “Advice of correspondence received, and decide on action to be taken, where appropriate:-“does not include the letter from Councillor M. Senior that announces his resignation as Trustee of the Hemingbrough United Charities, a position to which he was appointed by Hemingbrough Parish Council, who has confirmed it was handed to the Parish Clerk well in time for inclusion in the said agenda.

By handing a copy of his letter to the Clerk to the Council, which is discoverable by a Freedom of Information Act request on both the Parish Council and Charity Commission, in time for its inclusion in the Agenda, Councillor Senior intended that the public and other Councillors would know of his resignation at the earliest opportunity. Who decided the receipt of that correspondence should be concealed and the public and Members should be denied that knowledge at the September Parish Council?
[Handed to Clerk 7^th September, Agenda 9^th September, Subsequent calls]

COMMENT.
Thank you. I agree with you. As Councillor Senior has been declaring interests in the Charity for years, and left the Council meeting room recently when the Council was about to discuss spending money "INSTEAD" of donating it to the Charity because they had been reported to the Auditor, then his resignation letter has EVERYTHING to do with the Council, whether they like it or not, especially as he will not be declaring interests tomorrow night.
By leaving his letter out of the agenda, they are denying the knowledge of it to everyone who reads the letter on the village notice board!!!
Yes, it does seem like this new lot are acting like some Hemingbrough Back Street Group instead of a Local Authority.
It's worth reading their election leaflet; let me know if you want a copy.

SORRY!

2011-08-24T20:29:00.001+01:00

This is why I can’t copy any of the 22 pages written and presented by Councillor David Bilton GradIOSH to satisfy your many requests. Try asking the Parish Clerk.

“This feasibility study and report including all the contents therein for example photographs, supporting documents [Chinese Takeaway menu, Chip Shop menu, etc.] and information is subjected to copyright protection. The photographs have been reproduced/published after receiving the kind permission from the owners, managers or representatives of the organisations which are shown in the photographs. Therefore the reproduction or copying in full or part thereof, of text, photographs and or supporting documentation within this feasibility study and report are prohibited except where permission is granted from the author and the whole of Hemingbrough Parish Council, any request must be sought and permission must be received in writing prior to any such requirement or activity. The Author of this report and Hemingbrough Parish Council cannot be held responsible for any unauthorised copying or reproduction of these photographs [Chinese Take away Front Door, St Mary’s Church, etc] text or supporting documentation and will do everything within their power to prevent unauthorised reproduction. To protect individual privacy there are Blacked out areas within the report photographs, this is ensure that protection is given to those individuals who may be offended by their vehicle, property and or possessions being included in the photographs taken at the time without their consent. The Author of this report and Hemingbrough Parish Council have attempted to maintain integrity and protect the privacy of everyone not associated with the report and apologise in advance if there are any details or photographs in the report which cause embarrassment or offence to, or invade the privacy of, individuals, and assures everyone that this is not the intent. The included information and details within the report are an attempt to ensure an open, clear transparent and balanced debate to allow an unambiguous opinion to be achieved by the elected representatives of Hemingbrough Parish Council before they make, a collective decision whether to progress to the next stage and move towards passing the proposal for a pensioners tea and then take the appropriate and united action to make the event a success. The author of this report assures the owners, managers, representatives and individuals of property or possessions which are included in the photographs in this report that the photographs have been deleted from all storage devices such as cameras, memory cards and hard drive personal data saving equipment to ensure privacy is maintained. Finally the author of the report thanks all participants in the feasibility study for their time and considered opinions to allow the formulation of this report. The author also wishes to state that the study has been a humbling experience, seeing the enthusiasm and listening to the support given from almost everyone I have spoken to. Their 100% support given to me (with one exception) and the proposed event makes the effort of the feasibility study and the compiling of this report a completely worthwhile experience.”

[The Author then went on to falsely accuse the Council of transferring money into the private bank account of one of its Members, spill the beans about what they have been up to, then had to apologise to the Council for bringing it into disrepute, and drew attention to it all by asking for the report to be withdrawn after it had been with the Council for two months, defined as a Council document discoverable under the Freedom of Information Act and published! It’s no wonder Councillors want him to resign!]

Prescient - perceiving the significance of events before they occur.

2011-08-23T07:54:00.000+01:00

An extraordinarily prescient, unofficial, redacted minute of a Hemingbrough Parish Council vote about the United Charities discovered in the Charity Commission’s files. And yet these Councillors keep digging! Damaged electricity cable! Damaged gas pipe! Can of worms! STOP DIGGING! BE HONEST!

The Unique Council Report - can we have it back, please?

2011-08-23T07:15:00.000+01:00

Commissioned by Hemingbrough Parish Council, “prepared and presented” by a Parish Councillor, distributed by the Clerk, requested under the Freedom of Information Act, confirmed to be a document held by a local authority and subject to the Act, given to a member of the public, talked about in public by Councillors, made fun of on the internet, criticised at a Parish Council Public Open Forum, withdrawn from ‘most’ Councillors after it was found to bring the Council into disrepute and contain information so Councillors “would have been in trouble if we had accepted it” and now the Council wants it back from the member of the public so they can destroy it.

And the Council agreed it wasn’t a good idea to begin with!

This must be the only Council report ever to be published under the Freedom of Information Act that the Council has asked to be returned so they can destroy it. Maybe I can sell it on eBay. You couldn't make this up even if you wanted to make them look stupid.

Can the Parish Council have our damning report back, please?

2011-08-22T17:51:00.000+01:00

To the Chairman of Hemingbrough Parish Council.

No! You can’t have it back! The cat’s out the bag. You should seek legal advice.

That is my formal response to your Parish Council minutes published today asking that you collect all copies of an offensive Parish Council report[i] from Councillors and “the member of the public who had requested a copy[ii].”
Hemingbrough Parish Council is a local authority, no different in its establishment to district, county or other principal authorities and must act as such, displaying formality but with openness and transparency and sound decision making.

I say you don’t have the right to destroy a report commissioned by and submitted to the Council, handed by the Parish Clerk to Councillors who openly discussed it in the community for two months, that was legitimately discovered under the Freedom of Information Act after the Clerk was advised she should make it available to the public, widely discussed after extracts appeared on the internet and commented on at a Parish Council ‘Open Forum’ just because it contains information that councillors would rather not see in print.

I do not question your Council’s right to decline the proposals in it, but I do challenge the Council’s decision to withdraw the report as, “We would have been in trouble if we had accepted it” according to Councillor K. McCann at last Thursday’s council meeting. McCann knows the report contained false allegations for which Councillor Bilton publicly apologised to the Council for bringing it into disrepute, and that it revealed information damaging to the Parish Council. This is not the transparency and honesty we deserve.

Councillor Bilton’s report and the Council’s minutes confirm Hemingbrough Councillors “proposed, seconded and agreed with a show of hands” to commission that report into how the Council could organise its own annual event instead of donating money to a registered independent Charity that it has been funding with increasing amounts of public money until recently. The Council’s alternative plan predisposes all Hemingbrough Councillors who took part in that ‘show of hands’ to turn down a request for a donation from that independent Charity later this year that may, for example, help a local lone parent with the expense of providing school uniforms. By your actions, you should not be allowed to rule on any request from that Charity. No wonder you want the report to be withdrawn.

The offending report also confirmed Councillor Bilton’s opinion that to enable the Parish Council to continue with, in what is in his opinion, a very deserving and worthwhile cause of administering an independent registered Charity, when it had no lawful right to do so, the Parish Council should take on the sole role instead of channeling public money through the independent charity.

Your attempt to withdraw this report coincides with your Council’s own investigation of who recently sneakily altered the Council’s website to eradicate the long-standing Council claim that “the Council administers the Charity”, without the approval or the knowledge of the Council Chairman, Vice-chairman, most of the Members or the Clerk.

I am also questioning your professional advice that it is “perfectly reasonable” for Councillor Bilton’s report to be withdrawn after it had already been discovered and extensively commented on by the councillors and the public. Exactly what question did your Council ask to get that advice?

You may have agreed to collect all copies and remove all evidence of it from the Council’s electronic systems, but you cannot remove the damning information from the Internet and the public arena, you cannot guarantee you will get copies back from all the Councillors and you cannot stop more extracts appearing in print.

I request that you restore the report to the Council’s files, where it may be discovered by anyone under the Freedom of Information Act, and used as evidence of Council activities, meanwhile the public can continue to enjoy extracts from it on with Blog Posts starting on 14 July 2011.

Following your appointment as Chairman, you told Councillors and the public you want all Parish Councillors to work together, understanding what residents want and delivering results with integrity and complete financial transparency.

Integrity means with reliable honesty and the truth. Do not be dragged down by Councillors trying to destroy evidence of what happened before your election to the Council and having someone sneakily change a long-standing, public Council claim like a thief in the night without your knowledge. It’s your watch now, and you are responsible.

1. [i] “A Feasibility Study and Report for Hemingbrough Parish Council into the Provision of a Pensioners [sic] Tea. Copy for [named Councillors and Clerk] Prepared and Presented by Councillor David Bilton GradIOSH May/June 2011.

[ii]] Parish Council Minutes. July 2011 http://www.hemingbroughparishcouncil.co.uk/Contents/Text/Index.asp?SiteId=847&SiteExtra=8142566&TopNavId=440&NavSideId=11679

POINT OF ORDER CHAIRMAN!

2011-08-19T08:00:00.010+01:00

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Another one from the scarlet-faced Councillor Strelczenie. He couldn’t wait to roar his interruption as soon as Kris Wilkinson finished her Chairman’s Opening Remarks congratulating the Hagg Lane Green Group Councillors for an excellent Conservation Site Open Day that delighted residents and visitors and encouraged village children to explore that little bit of Hemingbrough set aside for them.

His anger had been mounting since a report of the Chairman’s ‘tongue lashing’ for the totally dysfunctional Parish Council and Councillors with disruptive personal agendas had appeared in the Selby Times on 4th August. After waiting for two weeks, he had to endure the chagrin of hearing justified praise for the Hagg Lane Green. In truth, his anger has been mounting since May 2011 when his wife failed to gain election to the Council after being co-opted four years previously in controversial circumstances against the advice of the Council’s Clerk and professional advisers.

Kris Wilkinson was firmly in his sights yet again. He denounced what he called the verbatim report of her tongue-lashing and asked if she had secured the approval of the Parish Clerk before her scathing criticism of Councillors appeared in the press. Everyone knew that he already knew she hadn’t and that he was hoping to lure her into his trap of admitting she had not followed council protocols about press releases.

She responded quite calmly and clearly that she had not sought the approval of the Parish Clerk, and that she had responded to a telephone call from the ‘Selby Times’ by confirming she stood by every word reported and had nothing to do with the Hemingbrough United Charities.

Sensing victory, Strelczenie visibly came off the boil and Councillor Chilvers told the Chairman that she was “out of order”, which is a serious challenge of a Chairman’s authority.

Now Chilvers, with his fellow Councillor Bygrave, already has a Freedom of Information Act request lodged with his own Council (!!!) in which they suggest Kris Wilkinson has brought the Council into disrepute after only a few meetings. Like his disruptive friend Strelczenie, Chilvers has been unhappy about his son failing to be re-elected to the Parish Council in May, and the publicity about this father and son duo being linked in the Council’s pet Charity where father is the Chairman and the son has been the Charity’s only tenant renting land for sixteen years at a fixed price while the Council has been donating increasing amounts of public money to it in recent years.

From the public seats, it is obvious that Strelczenie and Chilvers are trying to drag down the impressive, new female Chairman by any means. Had this pair of geriatric gerbils stopped gnawing, scratching and digging since their family disappointments at the May elections, they might have had the common sense to ask politely if the Chairman was responsible for her remarks being reported in the press. Of course, if the June Parish Council fiasco had been repeated, Strelczenie would have kept repeating “I doant believe yer!”, whatever her response.

This disruptive pair had fallen into yet another deep mire of their own making. Kris Wilkinson’s well-aimed rebuke of the whole Council had been reported to the ‘Selby Times’ within twelve hours and before most Parish Councillors had got out of their beds the morning after – BUT NOT BY HER.

These two Councillors have forgotten that a Parish Council is the first tier of local government, that their actions are open to public scrutiny, especially as they have as individuals offered themselves for public election, and their actions are therefore a matter of public interest. There is nothing to stop a resident informing the local press of parish council events, especially when the resident has a long-term reputation with the press and Bear Garden Blog readers of being correct about everything he claims.

These disruptive Councillors would not have such power if their fellow council appeasers and apologists had the character to support the Chairman in public.

Take the case of the ‘thief in the night’ alteration of the Council’s website claim “The Parish Council administers the [Hemingbrough United] Charity” when the Council Chairman, Vice-chairman, Councillors/Trustee, some other Councillors and Clerk were not informed. So far, it is admitted that Mrs S. Strelczenie made the change herself but she can’t remember when, and she did it on her own responsibility. It is alleged that she made the change after failing to be re-elected, and after the Council’s Annual General Meeting. None of the Councillors at last night’s meeting would admit any responsibility at all for instigating the change.

The appeasing point of view is that Councillors knew their long-term claim was wrong, but they hadn't done anything about it, and Mrs. Strelczenie was just unilaterally correcting it, as she was empowered to do, and the Council can’t minute everything, so that’s OK!

As is so often the case with appeasers and apologists of the Chamberlain “Peace in our time” type, they ignore the facts under their noses. In this case, the Council’s own website policy published on their own website,”Current issues should only be updated after they have been discussed at Parish Council. All updates on the site must be with the expressed approval of the Clerk or Chairman. There will be a provision to change the content on a majority show of hands so long as it is proven to be necessary for lawful reasons, or to protect the Parish Council.”

This Local Authority has just such a policy to stop “thief-in-the-night” changes from cliques intent on changing the record of their behaviour. No wonder the disruptive bullies get away with their disgusting behaviour.

Kris Wilkinson needs all the help she can get to sort out this totally dysfunctional group of Council bullies, apologists and mutes with their own disruptive agendas.

P.S. To reinforce the Chairman's rebuke for behaviour more suited to the playground, how about Chilvers complaining that I was making eye-contact with him and smiling, Strelczenie patting him like a solicitous son calming down a confused, elderly parent suddenly let out in public and repeating "Don't Roland", "Stoppit Roland", to the sound of 'Childish' from within the Council. You couldn't make it up. What a pair of gerbils.

Little Gerbils, how you squeal,

running nowhere on you wheel.

Trapped within your shocking rage,

held as if you’re in a cage.

Round and round upon the wheel,

Loosing all of your appeal

By your behaviour rude and surly

To Brave Kris our favourite girly.

Normal gerbils are so cute

But your behaviour does not suit

Important parish meetings

Where your constant bleatings

Do no good thing achieve

Except your sad anger may relieve.

There is no reason to be a brute

While others sit around, just mute,

We the electors want respect

You are the people we elect

We watch in deep dismay

On naughty children at their play.

Can you possibly think

How low you sink

When your endless fraction

Is met together with inaction.

[The Hemingbrough Bard]

When my two gerbils were apart, they became depressed, so I gave them bedding to dig, things to chew and treats. Perhaps you could get Jan and Roly some of the coffee cup sleeves from Starbucks. I steal 10 every time I am in there and my two gerbils go nuts crawling through them and chewing them up. It would give them something to do if parish council nights happen to coincide with Nursing Home nights out.

Are you giving them extra attention and certain that they are not sick? Male gerbils are not as active as they age but they do get grumpy.

Don’t the Councillors meet at the Institute that also houses the Pre-school? Maybe they can let Roly and Jan play on the floor; there must be a safe area they can run around in. A bathtub works if you don't have a safe play space, and you can even get in the tub with them!