Enter the STC Matrix
Walking into the meetings of the Leisure Committee of STC feels like entering another world – a world completely detached from reality. A world where money falls from the sky, consequences are an empty word, and creativity only serves hedonism. A world where spending on parties, celebrations and trips is more important than safety. This world – like the Matrix – has nothing to do with reality.
It is no coincidence that for the illustration of this article, I have selected a photo of Shirebrook Leisure Center being passed through a digital filter overlaying the graphics known from the movie The Matrix. This photo is a metaphor for the last STC Leisure Committee meeting. Unfortunately- as the item discussing the Leisure Centre issue was kept secret by the decision of… someone… That’s why apart from a photo and a reprint of the full wording of this agenda item, I cannot write anything about it. The item read as follows:
L/22/016 TO RECEIVE INFORMATION ON POTENTIAL LEISURE CENTRE DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY.
I could write an extensive article about the discussion at this point – because a lot was going on. I cannot. I can, however, describe some other interesting events of this meeting.
NEW NORMAL
Since the scandal of the poorly formatted invoices of AMP broke, my treatment at STC Chamber has gone from bad to worse. The avoidance of answering questions, ignoring FOI requests by Town Hall, breaking of Standing Orders by the Chair of STC, biting comments, shouting, and passive-aggressive comments (which I ignore so as not to add fuel to the fire) has become commonplace. But, out of journalistic duty, I must point out that there is a group of Labour councillors from whom I have never experienced any unpleasantness. The radicals which tend to be the source of all unpleasantness are a minority. A loud and obnoxious minority that in reality leads STC.
JOB THAT YOU CAN’T QUIT
Paradoxically- I am starting to get used to it. It’s strange because I’ve worked in the private sector all my life, and my colleagues always treat me warmly, friendly and respectfully. I always reciprocate with the same standard. I expected the same when I started my adventure with STC. This is my first time working in the ‘government’ sector, and I have to say that I am disappointed by the quality of work, professionalism and work ethic of the people around me. Comparing this world with the private sector, I see a shocking difference in every aspect of functioning.
In my professional life, I would have solved this in a minute – I would have quit a job like this on the spot. I have done that in the past. If a company can’t create a friendly atmosphere in which I feel good and can perform my duties with peace of mind and feel satisfaction from it, I change job immediately. Why bother? My skills are valued and desired on the job market, so why work somewhere I don’t feel good?
At STC, no matter what I do: I can’t even bring a single discussion point to the table. None of my ideas is taken into consideration. The projects I propose are not discussed at all. No one at STC cares about me being better. So not only do I not feel that I am achieving anything, I actually feel that the organisation I work for is actively doing everything to prevent me from achieving a positive outcome. I have never encountered anything like this in my life.
This is purely because I am from a different party to Labour. If someone tells you that councillors should work together for the good of the residents, then that person has never tried to work with the Labour Party. In my experience, the left has one rule: our way is the only way. That is why Shirebrook spends in the previous tax year more than a quarter of the million pounds on ‘leisure’ and zero on crime prevention and there is NO POLITICAL will to fix that. Let me bold and underline that sentence once again:
Shirebrook spends in the previous tax year more than a quarter of the million pounds on ‘leisure’ and zero on crime prevention.
That’s Labour priorities.
SOMETHING NEW
There was something new to the negativity mentioned above at the last Leisure Committee meeting (29.6.22). I noticed that once again, at an STC meeting, Labour politicians start the meeting by emphasising that the resignation of the previous Chair of STC Leisure Committee has nothing to do with the fact that she overlooked the fact that the Leisure Centre heating bills look like this:
You have to be entirely out of touch with reality (Matrix) to think that the above bill is OK– no meter readings, wrong quantity measurement unit, wrongly calculated total amount due. I tried to put this bill directly in the faces of the councillors by placing an item on the meeting agenda discussing a copy of the latest heating bill. I literally added a sentence: I request that a copy of the last AMP invoice be made available to each councillor before the discussion.
I hoped that when the less radical Labour Party councillors saw this bill, they might support my idea of looking more closely at the heating system used by STC. Since the Chair of LC wasn’t interested in this issue, other councillors may be interested. I guess that’s why the Chair (or Town Clerk although I’m beginning to lean towards the hypothesis that the Town Clerk is simply doing what Chris Kane tells her to do) skipped (in breach of Standing Orders, by the way) my proposal on the agenda of the last Full Council meeting.
Instead, Labour again began the meeting by declaring that Sandra Peake was stepping down for khm khm family reasons, not because of the rapidly developing AMP scandal. Let me underline that again: not scandal! Family. Got it?
DON’T LOOK AT IT CLOSER, PLEEEEAAAAASE!
Just for fun, I did a quick research to find out exactly what other functions our LC ExChair holds at the moment. If the argument about the family situation is true, then could Sandra Peake explains to me why she still holds the position at:
member of Executive Committee of BDC,
member of Parish Liason Group,
member of Park Funding Group,
member of Employment and Personnel Committee,
member of New Bolsover Joint Partnership Committee,
member of STC Operations Committee,
member of STC Finance and Growth Committee,
as well as appointments with the outside bodies:
Association for Public Service Excellence,
Association of Retained Council Housing.
As if that wasn’t enough, the BDC website claims that Sandra Peake is still ‘Portfolio Holder- Housing’. How many hats can you wear at once before it starts to look ridiculous?
Cllr Sandra Peake has threatened me that she will go to a lawyer if I write again that she has resigned as a result of the scandal with AMP invoices. Labour Party and STC are completely useless in communication with residents, so let me say on their behalf: Cllr Sandra Peake did not resign as Chair of STC Leisure Committee due to the AMP invoice scandal. Don’t you dare to think that!!!
She resigned from this ONE position for family reasons. All of the other ten positions appear to not interfere with her family responsibilities. Got it?
FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS AN AWESOME THING
We live in a free country with freedom of speech. I have the right to have my own opinion. I have the right to publish it wherever I like. Sandra Peake has the right to go to court if she feels aggrieved by my opinion. It’s her money to spend. I accept the possibility that Cllr Sandra Peake resigned due to family reasons- I just don’t believe it. She is probably the first politician ever to resign from one position while holding ten others.
Unless she resigned from more positions and failed to mention that. As I said: Labour is very bad at communication. She forgot to mention a reason for resigning when she resigned from LC chairmanship, so it’s entirely possible that she “forgot” to mention that she resigned from ten other positions. And before Labour Party members accuse me of lying about that, I attached the audio recording (few paragraphs below) showing the moment of resignation announcement. Not a single word about family reasons. Not a single word about other positions.
AMP SCANDAL WON’T GO AWAY UNTIL…
…we can clarify this whole matter in a civilised way. We can do an inspection, review the documents, force AMP to issue professional invoices for deliveries, review the delivery notes, compare consumption from one year to the next and dispel all doubts once and for all. I bet we can save some money by looking closer at usage. The STC, headed by Chris Kane, should have done this as soon as I raised the subject for the first time at STC meetings. I would if I were the leader.
Perhaps they have done so? Maybe they went through the documents and found something that made them realise they couldn’t let the truth see the light of day? Perhaps that’s why Chris Kane has been unable to gather and present documentation on this subject for two months? Maybe that’s why Town Hall broke the law by not responding to two FOI requests in a row? Now they know I’m good with documents- I see more than they do. Perhaps I, not Sandra Peake, should talk to the lawyers? Hmm?
PUT IT ON THE AGENDA- AGAIN!
I will continue to try to put on the agenda a vote on inspecting the heating system to take meter readings for a year to compare with previous years and to get the inaccuracies on invoices from AMP cleared up. If Labour disagrees, it will mean one thing to me- they are trying to hide an inconvenient truth for them. Realistically they have already openly admitted this by refusing to put my points on the agenda at the last meeting.
I was going to give up because I didn’t know what I could do next. However, one of the S247 readers who often comments on article links on Facebook inspired me to keep fighting. So I thought about it and found something I could do to push things forward. Thank you for your inspiration, reader- sometimes all you need is the one right word of support! It is people like you that our town needs in STC. Not bullies like Chirs Kane, and Chairs that never look closely at documents.
HOW ODD IS IT?
At the last Full Council, Sandra Peake said that at the AGM, she explained her reasons for stepping down as Chair of STC LC. I stated that no such thing had happened, and that’s why I speculated about that in an article. I was accused of lying (of course, I have a recording of this moment). So I went back to the audio recording of the AGM to see who had diverged from the truth. I am only human – perhaps I was listening inattentively?
I found a passage in which Sandra Peake reads out the changes in the composition of the various committees. From here, I can say openly and with conviction: Sandra Peake does not for a moment explain the reasons for her departure as Chair of LC. So, who is a liar? Here is an audio recording of this part of the proceedings. (it’s boring- I added it just to prove my point and show Labour Party councillors that I was right, they were wrong).
LONG LIVE THE NEW LC CHAIR!
At the moment, I can summarise the current situation as follows: Sandra Peake’s position in the LC of STC has been taken by someone new. So let’s leave her alone for now. Of course, I will need to ask her a few questions before I publish the next AMP article. After all, she was Chair of LC when all those shenanigans occurred.
HOW SERIOUS IS THE PROBLEM WITH THE LEISURE CENTRE HEATING?
I don’t know. I hope it’s just bad formatting of invoices. But… the problem exists and, in my opinion, shows the tip of the iceberg of the Labour Party’s lack of scrutiny, mismanagement and disregard for the value of taxpayer input into the functioning of the Leisure Centre.
I won’t stop writing about it until the AMP bills start to look like bills produced by a company officially registered at Companies House rather than something you might get from a child at a ‘lemonade stand’. No, sorry! Most children would know that three multiplied by 190 equals 570, not 650. So the ‘invoices’ for the average child’s lemonade would be at a much higher level of quality than those accepted by the ‘independent auditor’ at STC.
I will return to the AMP issue in the near future- I have some new information, and I’m still waiting for FOI request results. In the meantime, a report on the LC meeting on 29.06.22 chaired by the new Chair.
L/22/010 TO RECEIVE APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND TO APPROVE THE REASONS FOR THOSE ABSENCES.
Two committee members absent.
L/22/011 TO RECEIVE DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST.
No interest declared.
L/22/012 TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE LEISURE COMMITTEE OF THE TOWN COUNCIL HAVING BEEN HELD 2ND MARCH 2022.
Approved.
L/22/013 TO REVIEW AND NOTE THE CONTENTS OF THE LEISURE SUPERVISOR’S REPORT.
I did not receive a copy of this report so I do not know what was in it. You call it normal? I call it sabotage, incompetence, mismanagement, bad political will. All I want is to deliver my readers and voters information. Labour denies me that too…
a. TO REVIEW AND APPROVE RECOMMENDATION TO ADJUST EVENT CALENDAR FOR TOWN SHOW IN FUTURE YEARS.
b. TO DISCUSS AND DECIDE INCLUSION OPTIONS FOR JUBILEE EVENTS.
Unlike other towns – the Jubilee celebrations in Shirebrook will be stretched over virtually the entire holiday period. However, LC councillors have decided to charge a small fee for some of the events, as in the past free tickets have “sold out” like hot cakes and few people have come to the event. The small charge is intended to act as a deterrent to those who took out a lot of tickets and then did not use them.
So- I was right. Again. A lot of people don’t respect what they get for free which is why a town shouldn’t organise things “for free”. Even a small fee, say £3, with 50 visitors gives enough income to cover the cost of, for example, extra work hours of LC staff.
L/22/014 TO CONSIDER RESPONSES AS NECESSARY TO LISTED CORRESPONDENCE.
a. SHANNON RICHARDSON – REFUND REQUEST.
As I never get documentation of the meeting I don’t know what this was about.
b. MR E NUSSEY – LETTER OF APPRECIATION FOR TOWN SHOW.
One resident sent a letter praising the Town Show. Of course- I did not have access to it so I do not know what specifically he wrote. Again I must stress- it is madness to me that the town with the highest crime rate in the District spends well over £250,000 a year on ‘leisure and parties’ and zero on crime prevention. It is madness to me that the town with the highest crime in the District has a dedicated committee for ‘leisure’ and nothing to deal with helping the police with crime prevention and ASB.
If the voters ever decide to change the people running the town- I’m sure this will be the first thing to fix.
Here open part of the meeting ends and from now on I can’t report anything.
L/22/015 CONFIDENTIAL ITEM/S – Exclusion of the Press & Public
To resolve that in view of the confidential nature of the items to be discussed, a
formal resolution be passed to exclude the press and public from the meeting,
pursuant to the Public Bodies (Admissions to Meetings) Act 1960 & the Local
Government (Access to Information) Act, Part 1, paragraphs 11.
L/22/016 TO RECEIVE INFORMATION ON POTENTIAL LEISURE CENTRE DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY.
a. TO DECIDE COMMITTEE POSITION IN RELATION TO THE POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT AND MAKE RECOMMENDATION TO FULL COUNCIL.
b. TO INSTRUCT TOWN CLERK ON NEXT STAGE IF APPROPRIATE.
L/22/017 TO APPROVE THE DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING OF THE LEISURE COMMITTEE.
(SET AT 31ST AUGUST 2022 AS PER THE APPROVED MEETING SCHEDULE)
