STC Operations committee meeting 14 July 2021
In a previous article, I jokingly asked readers to guess which committee I sat on – today, I can solve that riddle and reveal that Labour “decided to assign” me to Operations Committee. Of course, I was more interested in the “Finance and Growth” Committee, but Labour can’t have someone snooping around finances, right? After all-they claim that the financial situation of the town is perfect and we all believe Labour when it comes to the financial situation, right?
I was hoping that the latest STC Operations Committee meeting would give me a lot of material to write about the development of the CCTV network in our town. As this topic is very timely (recent attacks), I hoped that I would have something interesting to communicate. The issue of CCTV was on the agenda, but … it ended in great disappointment. More details are below (item O/21/006/a for impatient ones).
I have not yet been able to observe the meetings of this committee. I have read the minutes of previous meetings, but this was the first one I attended. There is no need to beat around the bush – my debut was bland. There was, of course, an unpleasant altercation with one of the Labour Party councillors (the usual suspect), but this time I decided to stand aside so as not to make the committee chairman’s work more difficult. So without further ado – I invite you to a summary of the most interesting events and issues discussed at the Operations Committee meeting.
O/21/001 TO ELECT COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN FOR ENSUING YEAR.
There was only one candidate. Brian Carr-Murray was elected.
O/21/002 TO ELECT COMMITTEE VICE CHAIRMAN FOR ENSUING YEAR.
There was only one candidate. Ken Walker was elected.
O/21/003 TO RECEIVE APOLOGIES AND REASONS FOR ABSENCE.
Two members were absent, with apologies noted.
O/21/004 TO RECEIVE DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST.
No one declared an interest.
O/21/005 TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE OPERATIONS COMMITTEE OF THE TOWN COUNCIL HAVING BEEN HELD 20TH NOVEMBER 2019.(MEETING SCHEDULED FOR 18THMARCH 2020 NOT HELD DUE TO GLOBAL PANDEMIC)
Minutes were approved.
O/21/006 TO DISCUSS AND DECIDE ACTION IN RELATION TO THE FOLLOWING REPORTS FROM THE COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN.
a. CCTV TOWN CENTRE PROJECT.
Ok. Here interesting things started. Before I dive in, you need to know that since I was threatened at the June meeting, I sent a note to Town Clerk that I will record all meetings for my safety (and to temper more aggressive and abusive Labour councillors). If you download the agenda you will clearly see that this part of the meeting was not exempt. But at some point, one of the Labour councillors decided to… exempt it. Town Clerk agreed and… I was asked to DELETE the whole recording. Not CCTV part- whole recording.
I refused. Documents are documents. I read the Local Government Act, and as far as I understand- parts of the meeting can be exempt, but it must be noted in the agenda before the meeting- not at the meeting. I’m no expert, but I understand that random Councillors can’t just “exempt” some part of the meeting because they have a “wish”. I confirmed that suspicion with other Councillor from different Council. It seems that STC works under a different set of laws than British legislation…
Naturally, the situation became tense, with one Labour councillor quickly turning a simple discussion into a full-blown argument. I could persist and refuse to remove the recording. Still, since I respect the work and general demeanour of Cllr Brian Murray-Carr (Chair of Operations Committee and leader of CCTV project), and I didn’t want to turn an important part of the meeting into another argument with yet another bully from Labour- I relented. I’m alone- I have to carefully choose my battles until some reinforcements come to my aid…
So instead of a comprehensive update on the CCTV project, all I can offer readers is a BIG NOTHING.
Luckily- Police and Crime Commissioner Angelique Foster accepted my invitation to visit Shirebrook, so I have some important crime-related updates to share with my readers. I will work on that article as soon as I find some spare time.
b.MARKET SQUARE SITE RISK REVIEW.
i. GROUND.
A short discussion about trip hazards.
ii. TREES.
A short discussion about trees (and roots) at the Market area.
iii. TRAFFIC CONTROL.
Yet another attempt to solve a problem with traffic at Market Square. My impression after listening to the discussion? STC can’t and won’t do anything more than writing letters about it to Derbyshire County Council (owner of road and road sign at entrance). Our County Councillor is no help as well. STC tried to solve this problem in the past and failed every time, but I felt very little determination to change the current situation in reality. For one and only reason: it would be very unpopular with residents who ignore road signs and use Market Square as their car park and convenient access road to bank, shops and post office. Labour is scared to make unpopular decisions (sitting on fence- where we saw that?). In my opinion, this issue should be resolved quickly and without hesitation. STC should work with DCC to close the Market Square for private use and punish those who break the law. Another option- the complete opening of the road is unacceptable as it would create huge traffic jams and air pollution.
DCC offered STC to take over ownership of roads around Market Square, but it would be costly, and since Shirebrook is on the verge of bankruptcy- that won’t happen. So, for now, the decision was made to write another letter to DCC. Who knows? Maybe this time it will work? For a moment I felt tempted to involve myself deeper in this issue and approach it from a different angle than STC did it up till now but again- I have so much on my plate at this moment that I have to focus on issues with higher priority.
c. ADOPTION OF FOOTPATHS TO OFFSET DCC PROPOSALS ON OWNERSHIP AND MAINTENANCE.
Surprising but apart from CCTV this was the most interesting item on the agenda. Briefly: in December this year, legislation regarding public footpaths will change. County Councils will lose ownership of those tiny pieces of land to parish councils. But there is a catch: if the footpath isn’t adopted and maintained by the parish council, landowners adjacent to this footpath can take it over and close it to the public. STC doesn’t have a map of current footpaths in our area, but I was advised to check for it on the internet. I found a special page dedicated to this: https://footpathmap.co.uk
As you can see in the screenshot of Shirebrook South Ward below: we have many of those in my Ward (red solid lines, red dotted lines and green dotted lines).
I know a few of them are already paved and well maintained but some of them are probably entirely overgrown and unused. Still, several of them are very convenient links between neighbourhoods used by dog walkers and joggers. However, everyone agrees that maintaining this many footpaths was too much to handle for DCC and will be way too much for STC, so we will probably lose some of the less used ones unless residents decide to fight for them…
There is an organisation that supports communities to save as many as possible of those less used footpaths, but again, I felt very little determination from Labour Party to be involved in this and I’m not surprised- if they are not used why fight for them? I will try to contact this organisation and follow with another article on how they help- we still have some time to save some of the forgotten footpaths if we want.
From my point of view, it looks like those overgrown and unused paths are not popular among walkers, so losing them won’t hurt anyone. However, a few paths should certainly be looked after as they are used by many residents (for example, the footpath linking Meadow Lane with Stinting Lane which is badly maintained yet quite popular). Anyway- if your property is on the border of some unused footpath- maybe it’s time for you to look for this new legislation and plan your move before others do?
I thought STC would organise some working groups to determine which footpath will be adopted and abandoned. But, unfortunately, nothing like that was proposed. So, as a councillor for South Ward, I volunteer to review all footpaths in my ward and report back my findings to STC and residents. So, this is another article that I have to add to my “to-do list”- a review of footpaths in South Ward.
d.CONCERNS RE BDC RESPONSE TO EVIDENCE OF FLY TIPPING ON SOOKHOLME ROAD.
Update on the fight against fly-tippers in Shirebrook. All I want to say about it is that I’m disappointed about the BDC approach to this problem, and if I were District Councillor, I would rise a hell in some office out there. Ignoring recorded evidence is not a way forward.
O/21/007 TO CONSIDER RESPONSES AS NECESSARY TO LISTED CORRESPONDENCE;(NONE RECEIVED TO DATE)
No letters were received.
O/21/008 TO CONSIDER IMPROVEMENT TO AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM IN GROUND FLOOR OFFICES AT SHIREBROOK TOWN HALL INCLUDING REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF QUOTATION ATTACHED.
Remember this new, shiny Town Hall that cost us nearly 500 000 pounds plus an unknown amount of interest? It looks like someone decided that people working inside wouldn’t need a climate control device, so it wasn’t installed. Few hot days proved them wrong, and boiling in their own clothes employees asked (or rather, they gasped) for AC to be installed.
So good, taxpaying people of Shirebrook have to add 3370 GBP plus VAT to the overall cost of our new, shiny Town Hall. That is on top of 7000 already added from interest payment for beloved BDC. Cool 10k so far and cost will only go up… we have 50 years of “mortgage” payments ahead of us.
I voted “yes” even though I was against building a new Town Hall from day one. I see no reason why Town Hall workers should suffer because of the Labour Party short-sightedness.
I’m a bit surprised that Labour didn’t exempt this item– usually, they are soooo scared to reveal any figures. I think this time they simply forgot, and I will never allow occasion like that to go unnoticed- I promised transparency, and I’m determined to deliver it. Mark my words- someday word “exempt” will disappear from STC minutes. All we have to do to make it real is to choose someone else to run the town. Wink wink.
O/21/009 TO APPROVE THE DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING OF THE OPERATIONS COMMITTEE
Next meeting planned for 15 Sept.
END
Sylwester Zwierzynski info@shirebrook247.com
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