Retraction

In the report of the Operations Committee meeting published on 22 November 2021 I wrote: “Labour-led STC missed the deadline”. It was not true. The article was edited and false sentences were strike-through.

After listening to the audio recording of that meeting I noticed that the Chair used the phrase: “we were late”. This sentence, translated into my native language, literally means “we missed the deadline/we missed it” as I show it above on a screenshot from the translator I use.

I admit that I made the mistake of assuming because all indications were that STC had not submitted their application by the deadline. Just a few days earlier (7 November), during an exchange of messages with PCC Angelique Foster, I was asked why the STC had not yet submitted its application despite the fact that the deadline was looming. Following this communication, I received no further information on the application from either the PCC or the STC: hence my conclusion that the application had not been submitted.

My suspicions were confirmed by the statement “we were late” from the Chair of Operations Committee. As it turned out some months later: STC was late, but not TOO late.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to the readers of S247, to PCC Angelique Foster, to STC staff and to anyone who felt offended by this mistake. I made this mistake solely because of the inaccuracies that occur in the translation of English into my mother tongue. In no way did I intend to mislead anyone. I have only 9 months of experience as a councillor, so it’s lucky that my first mistake was with no consequences and/or severe implications.

I would also like to point out that since I published my first article on S247 (5th March 2020) this was the first mistake I made. So far, more than 70 articles have been published on S247, which I write and edit myself. Until I received a complaint about the aforementioned article – no one had ever accused me of a mistake. I will strive to continue to maintain this high level of integrity.

Sylwester Zwierzynski info@shirebrook247.com