Me: What with Debt? CHAIR: I’m closing the meeting…

I will start today unusually: with a 15-second audio recording. Recorded words were spoken in 1h 03min 23 sec of the last STC meeting. I am sorry for the poor quality, but below I present the transcripts of the recording. Click the triangle on the left side of the bar below to hear the recording:

CLLR SYLWESTER ZWIERZYNSKI: Back to the core: what…
CHAIR OF STC– interrupting but its inaudible
CLLR SZ– No! No! No! I still have to… I want to hear what with this debt will happen. Is it true it’s due (to pay back) in April?
CHAIR OF STC: I’m closing the meeting now!

I tried a couple of times to ask that very question before that abrupt end of the meeting- every time ignored. That’s why my voice is a bit shaky- I was about to lose another battle for truth with Labour. Overall, I admit- I lost. I lost this battle, and I own it. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

A little bit below is another short recording. This bit is from before the first recording (5 minutes earlier, to be exact). It is easy to sense in the tone of my voice that I am just beginning my speech – I am calm, my thoughts and words are more or less coherent. The question is asked clearly. Much clearer and more coherent than the question asked for the umpteenth time in the first recording.

Taxpayer-funded BDC gave a loan to taxpayer-funded STC. The loan is due soon or not? The taxpayer should know what is going on. I should not have such a hard time getting that info. Yet- I do.

I will ask another question: why during the TWO meetings about the town’s finances, the topic of almost half a million DEBT was never discussed. Not a single word. Labour economics? Recording from minute 58 of the meeting:

CLLR SZ: We are talking about finances and estimations for next year. From what I know, in April, the loan which we took from BDC is due to be paid. This is a finance meeting (58 minutes into meeting-author), and we didn’t even touch this issue. (Town Clerk interrupts)
TOWN CLERK: This is not a finance meeting. This is precept…
CLLR SZ: Yeah, but we are talking about money, and we don’t even mention debt(?!?) which is the highest debt (among) parish (councils) in Bolsover District Council (area). No other parish coulis have such a high debt as Shirebrook Town Council. We already add(ed) 7 thousand pounds (on top of the original loan) to this debt since the day we took it.

Did you notice in the recording that the first to interrupt was Town Clerk? Not about the question- about technicality. Town Clerk interrupted. Not to answer. But for a very particular reason.

When Town Clerk talked for a moment– no other councillor, no Chair, no Vice-Chair, not a single member of the Finance and Growth Committee, not a single “backbench” Labour Party councillor said a word. In this instance- my opinion is that Town Clerk played a role in the political game. She saved Labour from awkward and looooong silence, and at the same time- she didn’t tell anything that could harm Labour. I admit- good play. However, Town Clerk should not play politics.

She saved Labour NOT ONLY from answering the question, but what is more important- she saved them FROM TAKING PART IN DISCUSSION about debt at the moment when I still had control over the narrative. She stalled my argumentation, then distracted me. All of it to help break the “brain block” among the Labour Party. Silence sometimes is deafening.

The time she talks is time for them to THINK. You can feel the tension in the air. And they thought long and passionately. What do they come up with?

One of Labor’s councillors managed to get SOMETHING out of himself. Stupid something but… something. At this point, Town Clerk withdrew- her job was done. Her interference was replaced by Labour councillor interference. Evaluate for yourself the quality of his answer to the question about debt. Here’s what this councillor said:

“I THINK WHAT HE IS SAYING IS WE SHOULDN’T DEVELOP THIS BUILDING.“

NO COUNCILLOR! I didn’t say that! That is also not an answer to my question. Your voice is not a voice in the discussion about debt. You gave no solution, no proposition, no answer. Is it argument ad personam? Distraction? Change of subject? Maybe all of it? Simple question: is it not true that we have almost 500 000 debt to pay on April 22? And why there was not a SINGLE MENTION ABOUT IT ON TWO MEETINGS ABOUT TAXPAYER MONEY??? Read again, councillor, your first words after that question. I won’t even dignify that answer by attaching a name to it. Weak play councillor, weary weak. So transparent, so uninspired…

This question is so simple that there are only two answers: YES or NO. Unfortunately, the Labour Party cant do even that…

Once again, unnamed councillor: NO. I don’t ask about the development of the Town Hall. I asked about debt. Answering the question with a question unrelated to the original question is commonly regarded as disregarding the questioner and avoiding the answer. Weak.

Back to the matter on hand: his interaction wasn’t enough. Why? Well. In all other Labour heads, a red light came up. ALARM!ALARM! ALARM! Cllr SZ knows that if interest rates go up on that loan- the real cost of Town Hall can reach even a million pounds! He is not afraid to ask about that too! CHANGE THE TOPIC! God help us if he adds first expenses to improve Town Hall in the first years after launch… CHANGE THE TOPIC! NOW! NOW! NOW!

I also realised that is my opening for coming back to my original question and then…

…Town Clerk AGAIN step in to play in Labour Party team– changing completely subject away from DEBT AND TOWN HALL. However, she throws yet one more subject into the mix: she starts to talk about STC staff wages.

Who the hell asked about that?? Not me! I’M ASKING ABOUT DEBT. That was the original question before interference. So I listen patiently and at some point I was able to interject:

And here we go again. Interference, change of subject, another long and boooooring speech of one of the Labour councillors- of course without an answer to my question. Minute after minute, I’m trying to turn the conversation back to the subject at hand. But all I can interject is “BUT”. Twice. My frustration grows. With it- my ability to express myself coherently, think ahead. I must admit- I’m a bit better at these “games” than a few months ago, but I still have much to learn. Shame though that Labour Party plays political games with residents money and future…

At this point, the Chair has no control over the room– each Cllr talks whenever he/she wants, there is no usual queue of speakers even though many talks- none of them talk about what we will do with debt, what they propose. An STC Chairman like it- chaos is a socialist biggest ally. He doesn’t even try to get the conversation back to the matter at hand- to my question. When everybody talks and I can’t break through- they win. I’m getting nervous, stressed, I lose the train of my thoughts. And what is most important- I’m not getting an answer to my question.

I tried, again and again, I was only able to push in BU… You can hear it for yourself- I added this 5 minutes of Labour party school of economics and politics at the bottom of the article.

Shirebrook is the most indebted town in Bolsover District today. With the highest taxation, highest spending on maintaining a workforce of Parish Council and highest “other costs” of Parish Council. The entire STC meeting, which took place on January 26, was to discuss STC expenses and revenues for the tax year 2021/2022, talk about prognoses for 2022/2023 and decide whether to change tax rates for 2022/2023. The vote (without a surprise) was won by the Labor Party, deciding to increase the tax by 4.06%. Debt wasn’t discussed at all.

This article is long enough. Nevertheless, I invite you to review the most interesting events at the STC Council meeting, which took place on 01/26/22

We began the meeting with a minute’s silence in honour of F.Walker.

2022/001 TO RECEIVE APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND NOTE THE REASONS FOR THOSE ABSENCES.
Two councillors not present.

2022/002 TO RECEIVE DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS.
None were declared.

2022/003 TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE TOWN COUNCIL HAVING ON THE 15TH DECEMBER 2021.
Reviewed and approved.

2022/004 TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE FINANCE & GROWTH COMMITTEE OF THE TOWN COUNCIL HAVING BEEN HELD 12TH JANUARY 2022.
Reviewed and approved.

2022/005 TO REVIEW THE CLERK’S REPORT ON ANNUAL FINANCIAL INFORMATION AND SET THE PRECEPT DEMAND FOR 2022/2023.
Report reviewed. Basically, it was all that was discussed at the last Finance and Growth Committee meeting. You can read details here:

https://shirebrook247.com/2022/01/20/stc-expenditure-in-21-22-and-tax-year-2022-2023-forecast/
The precept is set to rise by 4.06%

2022/006 TO AGREE THE DATE FOR THE NEXT MEETING.
Date approved.

END

I must also mention that a small part of the meeting was dedicated to the CCTV project update. It is still dealt with. I predict it will be done before the next local election- Labour needs to show that they doing something and they planning a couple of “launches” before the elections. A little note – in August, I proposed to STC to join forces with other parish councils and build a single network with the operations centre in Shirebrook. One of the more prominent Labour councillors said then: “It will never work”. Seriously. I have it recorded. Today, just a few months later, we’ve been informed the BDC is thinking of something like that, but headquarters won’t be in Shirebrook. I wanted to call it the Bolsover District CCTV Partnership. How do they call it? Does not matter. It is crucial that my idea is good and may be implemented.

CAN WE SAVE SOME MONEY?
(EDIT: I wrote about this issue to BDC but sadly- as Leisure Centre is part of “precepting” authority: discounts for leisure businesses offered by the government do not apply- yet another reason to rethink the legal status of LC. I’m leaving this part of the article just to keep the original form).
I also had one additional idea – how to save 17,000 STC. I asked about it on the Finance and Growth Committee. I sent an inquiry about this to Town Clerk. I have to check my inbox to see if I have received a reply, but as I checked recently, there was no answer (checked again before publication- saving of 17,000 didn’t provoke an answer from Town Council yet-shame). This was also not mentioned at the Precept Meeting.

In my opinion, it is simple: the government has offered a 50% discount on the business rates for organisations in the Leisure sector. We have a Leisure Center that pays, I think, £34,000 a year. Just apply for a discount, and boom! The town saves 17k. Maybe there is some good reason why the STC does not take this opportunity to cut costs. I do not know. I will find out. I mean- I will try. If we manage to save this money, maybe it can be spent on Youth? Or saved to pay… I don’t know… some debts??? Oh, silly me…

Labour has already passed the 5k available from Police and Crime Commissioner Angelique Foster for antisocial crime prevention, so maybe this time I have to take care of it personally. (EDIT: Labour didn’t pass that opportunity, we just didn’t get it).

The meeting lasted an hour and four minutes and ended abruptly. To sum up my feelings: it was clear on the day of my first STC meeting, and it is even clearer now: Labour is more focused on parties, celebrations and spending your money. I, for one, would like to restructure the town’s budget to focus on safety and health plus reduce the town’s spending on salaries and entertainment.

Sylwester Zwierzynski info@shirebrook247.com

5-minute recording: