Glapwell scandal: Labour Party betrayed… Labour Party!

Some accuse me of the relentless bashing of the Labour Party. This time I will leave this duty to representatives of the Labour Party itself. In this instance, our own Cllr Steve Fritchley and Tom Kirkham representing Glapwell in BDC. Strap up because it gonna be hilarious!

I think we should start with Cllr Steve Fritchley. I received the recording of a radio interview with him, and it’s pure gold- he literately destroyed himself in defence of betrayal of democracy and local community. This is the recording:

A full explanation of the scandal starts at 30 sec of recording. At 3mins 15 sec is the first golden nugget: people who went to observe vote on the sale of this piece of the land saw that they won the vote. They won! But then they were informed that land… was already sold?!? When they came back to the village- a piece of land was already surrounded by a fence!

Residents won the vote, but Labour ignored that because Labour had a secret vote before the public vote and decided to sell this land anyway! Why the hell they made a vote on a full council meeting if they already sold the land?!? Labour style democracy?? Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot would be proud! Steve Fritchley certainly is! He confirms that at 4:23 by saying: “It is precisely what it is: democracy!”

YET ANOTHER LAND SALE SCANDAL
People of Shirebrook remembers the sale of land for Tesco. It ends up with a massive scandal, and not a single penny came back to Shirebrook. So Glapwell is into harsh surprise. If they think they will get some money to improve infrastructure, they are naive. They will get what Shirebrook got (nothing), or they will get some crumbs before the next elections: BDC will throw some money to buy votes for Labour. They need to do it, or they will lose Glapwell like they lost Clowne.

LABOUR BETRAYED… LABOUR!
After the Steve Fritchley radio interview debacle, it is time for local Labour Party councillor to add to the fire. This is what Tom Kirkham (Labour Party District Councillor for Glapwell) wrote to supporters of an online petition created by residents to stop the sale of land:
“Today’s debate led to a 15 – 13 vote to protect the land. (…) However, the council informed us after the vote that they had managed to push the transaction through days before this vote.”

Cllr Tom Kirkham failed to explain that the decision was made and kept secret by the BDC Executive Committee BEFORE vote at the full council meeting (Executive Committee of BDC- 100% Labour Councillors; 3 out of 8 councillors from Shirebrook- S.Fritchley, D.Dowes and S.Peake). So labour Party establishment thought they will win, and when they lost, they were forced to reveal that decision was already made, and the vote was for nothing. Ah… gentler style of politics!

The bottom line is this: the establishment of the Labour Party betrayed Labour Party councillor and betrayed residents of Glapwell, lied to them and as a cherry on top: local Labour “leader” still claims that “it’s a democracy”!!! All of that just to satisfy the greed of one wealthy guy who wants to build some houses for sale… Labour is for the working class.. yeah… right.

CUT THE TREES! FOR RICH GUY TO MAKE EXTRA MONEY!
Next time you hear about Labour Party “Green Deal”- remember: they will sell you out for rich guys without a moment of hesitation, and all this “green” posture of Labour is just to cut the progress of the Green Party. Its politics- not genuine care about the environment.

Regardless of media blowback and massive scandal, there is something that no one asked. Why Labour pushed for the sale of this land so hard? Why did they decide to put the interest of the developer over the interest of local residents? I think a journalist should ask a simple question: who is this secret investor? What was his relationship with Steve Fritchley and Labour Party? Did this mysterious investor or any of his company or family members pay donations to Labour Party?

From what I heard, Basil Hill (new owner of a controversial piece of land) is allegedly a very close friend of Steve Fritchley and Chris Kane. But, of course, I don’t know if it’s true, maybe they hate this guy, and that’s why they fought so hard to push his investment? Nooo… that doesn’t sound right, right?

I decided to allow councillors to explain this scandal to readers from their point of view. I send questions about it to our Shirebrook councillors at BDC, who are members of the Executive Committee. ALL OF THEM IGNORED those questions (you can read my questions below article). Then I asked for comment County Councillor for Glapwell, James Barron. As usual- politicians from outside of Shirebrook are not scared to talk with me, so he sent me a short reply with his point of view on this matter:
James Barron: “The complete lack of transparency from BDC shows how out of touch with residents the executive board are. As your local councillors, we should be working with our residents, not against.

It seems to me that the Labour-run administration were expecting to win this motion and so pressed ahead with the sale of the land regardless. The fact that they lost has only highlighted their shortcomings.

It’s time for a change, in two years time I will be backing all of our conservative candidates for a more transparent district council that works with and for the residents from every corner of Bolsover district.”

GLAPWELL LOST. WHO’S NEXT?
Those trees survived king George, the First World war, Second World War, Cold War, fall of communism in Europe, war criminal Tony Blair, Credit Crunch. Those trees fall victim of Labour Party greed. We should ask ourselves: who will be the next victim of the Labour Party? Some time ago, I wrote that Labour shows authoritarian tendencies- I think that “vote” shows I was right.

Sylwester Zwierzynski info@shirebrooknews.com

Lead picture: KC Green

Glapwell land sale questions

Dear councillor!

I’m writing an article about the Glapwell land sale scandal, and I’d like to ask you few questions about it. I understand that you are a member of the Executive Committee, so you should have complete knowledge about this issue. As far as I know, you were one of those councillors who decide about this matter before a vote at the July DBC meeting.

Question 1: How did you vote on the Glapwell land sale at the Executive Committee meeting before the vote on the 22nd of July?

Question 2: Could you explain why the vote took place if Labour Party already decided on the Executive Committee to sell this piece of land?

Question 3: according to my sources, the businessman who bought this land is a close friend of Cllr Chris Kane and Cllr Steve Fritchley. Is that true?

Question 3(Steve Fritchley version:): according to my sources, the businessman who bought this land is your close friend. Is that true?

Question 4: to your knowledge does this businessman donated any money to the Bolsover District Labour Party organisation in the last 3 years?

Question 5: Could you explain to me why, during the climate crisis, the Labor Party decided to support cutting down of the oldest trees in the district just so that a wealthy businessman could build a road?

I would appreciate any additional explanation or comments on this matter. Thank you.

Sylwester Zwierzynski info@shirebrook247.com