Why I chose Shirebrook
My name is Sylwester Zwierzynski and I live in Shirebrook since 2013. I came to this country as an economic migrant just for 5 years. What was my first 5-year plan in the UK? To save enough money to buy a home back in my country, and leave positive waves around me. In short: I came not only to earn but to give something back.
If you look at the calendar you’ll see it’s been more than five years and I’m still living in the UK. It’s just that after the first five years I put together a plan for the next five years. I decided: this place is too good to leave it behind. I stay for another 5 years!
SHIREBROOK HERE I COME!
For most of my first decade in the UK, I move from place to place a lot. After never-ending moves from city to city in a chase after better work, I decided to settle down for good. This time- not in a city. After experiences of rented accommodation in Liverpool, Doncaster, Coventry, Sheffield and Mansfield, I decided to look for my own place in a smaller town. I had enough of crime, traffic, police sirens at the night, crowds everywhere, parking problems everywhere, drunk and drugged people sleeping rough on the streets.
Every time I came across a good house in my price range- I checked www.police.uk to see how much crime this area has. Back then (in 2013) Shirebrook area I was observing, was one of the safest areas not only in Shirebrook but also in Bolsover District (this changed now and you can read about this in our crime stat post).
Also, at this time Shirebrook had zero long-term unemployment, and that means no bands roaming the streets in search of trouble. So yeah- I think I chose correctly. Maybe Shirebrook is not a Beverly Hills but has a unique charm, very low crime and many nice people. Maybe I’m lucky, but all my closest neighbours are like me- quiet, nice, hard-working people who don’t think about loud parties in the evening.
AS EVERY COMMUNITY-WE HAVE OUR OWN PROBLEMS
Of course, we have our problems- like every town in every country in the world. I think Shirebrook’s main problem is crime and community indifference. I wrote about crime in a separate post. So what about community indifference?
Literally, no one visits Council meetings- Shirebrook Town Council just voted in another tax rise, and there was not a single vote against it. They (STC) trying to get a 50-year loan, and no one knows about it. They took another loan just to build a new Town Hall, and no one knows about it. Only 20% of us, residents of Shirebrook, voted in local elections. That was the worst participation in the whole Bolsover District. For example, in Tibshelf this number was 50% higher than in Shirebrook. It’s like Labour takes this town for granted, and residents just accepted that and gave up… On top of that- almost no one in town believes that Labour could be overthrown. In the last election(2019), the north of town didn’t have a single candidate from other parties than Labour- not even one independent candidate. In the south, there was one- me. And I lost by 16 votes…
I know there are people who care about the future of Shirebrook. They were neglected and ridiculed in the past by some of the current Council members so they stop trying. I decided to create this website just to express my despair about the current activities of Shirebrook Town Council, but while I work on it, I felt that I can do more. I can inspire others to stand up and do something to change this overwhelming feeling of lost cause that rule over this town…
I hope this website will be a source of positive change for this town. I hope I will find other people like me. People who look in the future with optimism. People who will sacrifice some of their time to make this place better for all of us. People, who like me, think that 50 year loan is bad for future generations and should not happen. People who are sick and tired of tax rises every year. People, who like me, think that the Labour-led STC dropped the ball on crime and allow criminals to take over the town. If you visit our humble pages- you will see a new post every week. In time we will add Youtube clips, events and competitions. I will work tirelessly to make this website a one-stop place for all who seek information about our town issues.
If you have Facebook- you can “Like us” to get all updates and share information about us with Your friends. We will post links there every time we publish something new on the website.
Sylwester Zwierzynski
