STC

The heating scandal is getting hotter (OPComm)

October 3, 2022

8 minutes read

As I went to the Operations Committee meeting on the 29th of September 2022, I thought the highlight of the agenda would be to discuss the heating report. It turned out, however, that the most emotional element was the discussion in the closed/secret part of the session.

Of course, I cannot describe it, but there is “some” chance that the Labor Party councillors will make this issue public – everything is in their hands. One can always hope. I am personally involved in this matter. You could almost say that I am in the middle of this affair, so I want to describe it in detail as soon as possible. Now, all I can do is publish the wording of the text describing this item. I hope the readers will connect the dots and figure out what this may be about.

IS THE HEATING SCANDAL COOLING DOWN? NOT REALLY…
Coming back to the topic of heating: I have finally received a comprehensive report with answers to all the questions I have asked. I also received three e-mails with copies of invoices for the period 2015-2018. Unfortunately, copies of invoices for the period 2013-2015 are still pending. Therefore, I decided to only show a few details in this article, but I will not write a detailed description of the discussion. First, I have to analyse the documents, enter data in the spreadsheet, and cut out the most interesting statements from the debate – so that the readers get to know not only my point of view.

STC’S NEW LINE OF DEFENCE
The Labor Party seems to have devised a new line of defence against this scandal. For the first time since I started writing about it, someone at the Chamber mentioned that the higher heating costs (while the Leisure Center was closed) were due to the Vaccination Center being placed on their premises. I listened to recordings of previous meetings, and even though Labor Party and Town Clerk councillors say they spoke about it before – I did not find a single comment on it. Neither in my recordings nor the minutes of meetings. Weird? According to the Chair and Town Clerk, the Leisure Center was intensely heated and ventilated, so the system worked “overtime”. I hadn’t considered it before, so I thought I had made a mistake and was wrong.

I don’t remember when the LC vaccination centre was operating, and when Town Clerk said it, her voice was so quiet that I couldn’t understand what she said. I don’t know if the Vaccination Center is a good explanation for the £ 2,000 bill for August 2021, but even if the door had to be kept open, did you have to heat the room in the hottest month of the year than in winter? The question then arises: if the Vaccination Centre is the justification for the increased cost, will this line of defence hold up under the onslaught of facts when I analyse the invoices for the other billing periods?

OVERTIME? MORE LIKE LYING TIME!
Is this exceptional time when the LC heating was operating “overtime” really the only period with increased consumption? That’s what they say: Chair of STC, Chair of LC (because he also appeared at the meeting) and Town Clerk. A united front against the facts is nothing new at the STC Chamber. While admitting their version of the events sounds convincing at first, you must remember that I exchanged many e-mails with AMP, and I have documents from other periods of the system’s operation. I think Labour forgot that. For me, this line of defence looks like a joke. Bad joke. I don’t know how anyone in Labor would have thought I would take this explanation without going into detail.

Chris Kane and his faithful assistant, the new Chair of the Leisure Committee, showed a lack of political sensitivity – they began to emphasise the fact of heating working overtime so often and spoke about it with such passion that it caught my attention. Documents don’t lie. When I present them – everyone will have the opportunity to conclude on their own, and thanks to the fact that I will show them in the form of transparent charts – the pattern will be visible in the palm of your hand.

I am disappointed that Chris Kane has not prepared to discuss this agenda item. Instead, he continues to go into denial, continuing to claim that the emperor has fine clothes. Fortunately, this blind stubbornness has given me some juicy snippets of audio recordings, which I have saved for another article. Ahhhh you will enjoy it!

SPOILER ALERT!!!
Spoiler alert: the aforementioned new defensive line is about to crumble like a house of cards. I’ve put together some tables for the readers, which provide a kind of Trailer for what’s coming. So hold on to your hats because it’s going to blow.

The line of defence is this: in 2021, the heating in the LC was operating in “overtime” mode. Let me remind you: LC then burned 18,500 kg of pellets. OK. Granted- this story holds water. But how do the Labour Party and Chris Kane explain that in 2018, well before the pandemic, LC “burned” 18,440 kg of pellets!?! That is, as much as it burned when the heating was running “overtime” WITH THE DOORS OPEN! Did I miss the 2018 pandemic????

In the same period of time, in 2022, but under my observation, LC used only 10,850 kg. 8 tonnes of pellets difference in 4 months!

LABOUR PARTY- SO-CALLED LEADER, SO-CALLED OVERSIGHT, SO-CALLED SCRUTINY
Labour has gone into “damage control” mode. Labour with the Town Clerk needs to prepare a new line of defence because not only 2018 did LC burn through more than in the year I oversaw spending. You have to be blind not to see that since I started writing about it and asking uncomfortable questions, this consumption has fallen exponentially. Here is more evidence.

Here is a comparison of 2017 with 2022.

Here is a comparison of 2016 with 2022.

AND NOW, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, PIECE DE RESISTANCE!!! PANDEMIC YEAR STATS!
Finally, to conclusively refute the thesis of the Vaccination Centre’s impact on pellet consumption: here is a comparison between 2020 and 2022. In March 2020, a pandemic broke out in the UK, and the first lockdown was introduced. A full lockdown. There were no vaccines yet, so there was no vaccination centre. LC was closed completely. Pellet burning? Shocking.

In the same period of time, the completely closed Leisure Centre consumed 4,570 kg of pellets more than two years later, but under my watchful eye. Around 850 pounds down the drain. Why was usage 50% higher in closed Leisure Centre than in a current year when Leisure Centre is fully open? How your new line of defence works here, Chair? Something seems to me that you are all fooling yourselves with this new line of defence and have only done so because you are afraid to face the truth.

CHAIR HAS HAD ENOUGH OF THE HEATING SCANDAL!
During the discussion, the Chair said he was sick of talking about the scandal. I’m not surprised: the heating scandal, £160,000 for the toilet at Market Square, the bizarre solar panel deal, the STC employment rate and costs in comparison to the other councils in the region – it all paints an awful picture of how Labour runs the town. I hope that once it’s all cleared up, someone at Labour will finally show a bit of civil courage and admit that something wasn’t right there and that my questions have made them start saving energy. In this day and age, saving energy is not bad, right?

Now we have to move on to the STC Operations Committee meeting report on 28.09.2022. If you think this is going to be a duller text than it has been so far – you will probably be pleasantly disappointed because Op Comm is not Lcomm – there is almost always something interesting going on here. This time was no different.

O/22/013 TO RECEIVE APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND TO APPROVE THE REASONS FOR THOSE ABSENCES.
Three councillors of the committee were absent, but a councillor who is not a member turned up. As usual in such cases – the councillor was allowed to speak in the discussions but did not take part in the votes.

O/22/014 TO RECEIVE DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST.
None declared.

O/22/015 TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE OPERATIONS COMMITTEE OF THE TOWN COUNCIL HAVING BEEN HELD 13TH JULY 2022.
Minutes claim that the Chair “reminded elected Members of the various projects the Town Council had been involved in over the years and updated that the CCTV project had now commenced which would assist with improving the safety for all in those areas“.

I have been a member of STC for almost two years: other than CCTV (promised in 2016 and pushed by me like a madman since 2019), not a single ASB tacking project was funded by STC. No money was spent on tackling crime or ASB prevention.

Then we read in minutes:
“Elected Members were also reminded that action against ASB and crime were not functions of The Town Council.”

For that, I will show you one picture I found on the internet long ago and add something from myself. Picture:

My opinion: it’s the duty of all good people, all authorities, and all organisations to prevent crime. You can’t leave the police alone in this fight and expect results. In the last tax year, STC spent 250 000 pounds on “leisure” and zero on crime and ASB prevention. STC need to change that. Period.

The second issue raised under this agenda item was:
a. TO REVIEW AGENDA ITEM 0/22/011C – FURTHER INFORMATION OBTAINED AFTER THE MEETING WHICH AFFECTS THE DECISION TO PERMIT CHICKENS TO BE KEPT ON AN
ALLOTMENT PLOT AT PARK AVENUE ALLOTMENT SITE. AT MEETING HELD 15TH
SEPTEMBER 2021 – O/21/013C A REQUEST OF THE SAME NATURE HAD BEEN DENIED.
This item came on the agenda because of me, or rather because I do a report on every STC meeting. I was the only one to notice that once STC allows hens to be raised on allotments and once not. I had pointed this out at a previous meeting and, of course, as always, was ignored. I went home, found the notes confirming that I was right and published it on the blog. Someone spotted it, and the matter was back on the agenda.

In my opinion, it is a huge injustice that some people can raise chickens and others cannot. In my opinion, allotments should only be used to grow fruit and vegetables, and STC should have a clear policy on this.

O/22/016 TO RECEIVE AND REVIEW REPORT FROM COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN.
In this item, councillors were given a comprehensive briefing on the ‘Market Square Report Interim Visit and Report’ and ‘Operations Team – Equipment Replacement/Renewals’. In my opinion quite an interesting piece of material on the operation of the township, but I’m sure if I started to describe it, I’d spend three pages describing the findings of these reports, and I’d bore all the readers at the same time. So I’ll let the subject go, and if you want to know more- send me an e-mail, and I’ll scan the documents and send them to you for review.

O/22/017 TO RECEIVE, REVIEW AND APPROVE COSTINGS FOR OPERATIONAL EQUIPMENT.
A discussion on recent equipment purchases. Nothing major or too expensive – the most expensive item on the list was a pressure washer.

O/22/018 TO CONSIDER RESPONSES AS NECESSARY TO LISTED CORRESPONDENCE;
a. MR P CARRINGTON & MS E DAWSON – PARK AVENUE ALLOTMENT SITE.
i. REQUEST TO PLACE GREEN HOUSE.
ii. REQUEST TO PLACE SHED.
iii. REQUEST TO SITE CHICKEN COOP AND HOUSE CHICKENS.
The first two points were accepted, but the third was rejected.

O/22/019 TO RECEIVE AND REVIEW REPORT ON THE BOILER SYSTEM AT SHIREBROOK LEISURE CENTRE. (REPORT TO FOLLOW)
I will write about this in a separate article when I get the data for 2013-2015.

O/22/020 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.

O/22/021 PERSONNEL MATTER – TO RECEIVE REPORT FROM TOWN CLERK AND INSTRUCT ANY FURTHER ACTION REQUIRED.
Ugh, ohh, auch! As usual- Labour Party want to hide something veeeeery inconvenient for them.

O/22/022 TO APPROVE THE DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING OF THE OPERATIONS COMMITTEE. (SET AT 16TH NOVEMBER 2022 AS PER THE APPROVED MEETING SCHEDULE)
END