A visit to Barlborough

After a long break, I am returning to my series of comparisons between Shirebrook Town Council and other local Councils in the Bolsover District area. This time I visited one of the smallest Councils, i.e. Barlborough Parish Council (BPC). To my surprise, even at the meeting of the geographically most remote Council- the word Shirebrook appeared in the documentation.

I thought I would explain why Shirebrook came up on the BPC agenda. Some time ago, STC decided to allow to develop of an area of our town that is currently not so much neglected as simply unused. The site, at the moment, looks like a field of weeds. It is located here:


When this was discussed at the STC meeting, there was just a sentence in the documentation about a plan to build industrial units. It sounded innocuous but rather welcomed- we need more space for small businesses in Shirebrook. Everything was approved at both the STC and the BDC. Only then did it become apparent that the Post Office had a problem with it because the name of the site clashed with the existing one in Barlborough. The Post Office allowed BPC to block the naming of the Shirebrook site. To clarify – the issue seemed so trivial to BPC councillors that they chose to ignore it.

To make the article more interesting, I have scanned some of the documents that appeared at the meeting.


Now that we have that sorted out, we can move on. Labour Party councillors are adamant that Shirebrook cannot be compared with other towns in the region because each is different. From the politicians of a party that constantly insists that we are all equal and the same – it sounds like a bad joke. I think we should continuously compare ourselves and look to Bolsover, South Normanton and Clowne to know how to be better. However, in the case of Barlborough, I might be inclined to argue that comparison is inappropriate. The difference in population size is too significant. Nevertheless, it is helpful to know the difference in the level of taxation of the residents of the two towns.
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I’M LOST! SO LOST!!
The problems of finding the venue are a regular part of my Bolsover District tours, but this time I was defeated. If it hadn’t been for a kind woman who spotted me walking helplessly around the centre of the town and offered her help finding the building- I probably wouldn’t have had anything to write about.

Let’s start with the fact that Google Maps marks the council building in the middle of a… field. I thought it was just an old photo and I would find the new council building there. On Google, it looks like this:


Unfortunately, when I arrived at the site, it turned out that there was a field and nothing more. The Google designation was, therefore, completely misleading. When the nice lady pointed out the building to me, it turned out that it looked like an ordinary residential building. It is located in the middle of a residential area with a dozen identical buildings. I drove down this street, looking for the building where the meeting would take place. I was literally ten metres away from this building, and it did not even cross my mind that there might be Council offices inside. Here is what the building looks like on google maps:


And here’s what the building looks like late at night when the autumn Council sessions are held.


Good luck finding it when you’ve never been there before.

THEY ARE TINY, SO TINY!!!
Although Shirebrook is not a large town, we are a metropolis compared to Barlborough. This difference in size means that the two authorities face slightly different problems. Unfortunately, nothing discussed had any reference to the situation in Shirebrook. Nevertheless, I can’t say it was wasted time – I learned something, and I’ll tell you about that in a moment. The only thing that caught my attention was the frequent mention of the impact of the M1 on the town’s life (in a rather negative way). The police officer present at the meeting also highlighted this when discussing crime.

CHAIR
Since I started paying attention to the Chair’s work at meetings, I have noticed that many Chairs have distinctive sayings that no one but them uses. In the case of the Leader of BPC, the saying is: “everybody happy?”, which she used at the end of every agenda item and after every vote.

In general, the meeting went very smoothly, and the Chair controlled the room fully, although I must stress that there was nothing controversial on the agenda, so there was no room for emotion, which is usually the best test of the Chair’s character. In any case, my assessment of the Chair was positive: she was in full control of the room, she let everyone speak, she did not interfere when another councillor had the floor, and she did not interrupt when other councillors were speaking. Ah, what a nice change…

It is also noteworthy that for the first time since I started travelling – the Chair not only allowed but encouraged the guests present to participate in the discussions. She even directed a few questions to members of the public. This week was unique in my career – the same situation occurred at a meeting I visited the day after (Bolsover) and two days later (Shirebrook). It was a strange week in which things happened that had never happened before. For example, something was said at the Bolsover Town Council meeting, which I will write about in the next part of the series. Really strange week…

GUESTS
The Chair was surprised at the absence of the County Councillor (Natalie Hoy- Conservatives), but she was excused (illness) by the District Councillor (David Dixon- Conservatives), who came to the meeting with the entire BDC news roster. That Natalie Hoy’s presence was expected is further confirmation that there are local politicians who take their responsibilities seriously. Unfortunately, this is another example of a blatant disconnect with what is happening at STC. “Our” County Councillor has never turned up at an STC meeting.

I will stress again– the Councillor representing Shirebrook has NEVER appeared at an STC meeting. So guess what party “our” CC represents!

CHAMBER
As I mentioned – from the outside, the building looks like an ordinary bungalow, but the Chamber itself is spacious, with plenty of chairs for residents and spectators alike. A paradox – the three times smaller Council has a larger meeting room with much better acoustics and room layout. Three people sat in the spectator area apart from me. During the proceedings, it turned out that the lovely woman who showed me the way into the building was either a member of the Council or one of the Council’s employees because, in the second part of the proceedings, she sat at the councillors’ table and spoke about the Council’s activities. I think she was the equivalent of our LC Supervisor as she was very knowledgeable about the children and youth programmes.

NO IDEA WHO WAS WHO
For some time now, I have always tried to do a little research before going to the ‘other’ Council meeting. That’s how I know that BPC has two Conservative councillors, one Independent Councillor, and the rest are from Labour. Interestingly- the Conservatives at the last election had such high support that if they put up a full list, they would probably take over the reins of power in this Council. I’ve noticed that Conservatives, unlike Labour, don’t put people up just to fill a list. Is that bad or good? I think this is a way for the Conservatives to avoid embarrassing situations like this one in the STC – where Labour put up random people who were not interested in the job. This led to a byelection for which the people of Shirebrook covered the bill- cool 4,000 pounds down the drain….

Anyway – the councillors did not have name badges as is sometimes the case in other councils. My attention was drawn to one Councillor who spoke infrequently, but when he did speak, it was on topic and to the point. For example, he gave a speech about young people drinking alcohol in the park. In one of his speeches, he made the audience smile when he asked who among them had not drunk alcohol when they were teenagers, trying to emphasise that young people of every generation cause such problems. However, for him, it is a bigger problem when young people do not take care of their surroundings (the problem of broken alcohol bottles, which unfortunately also occurs, especially at weekends, in our city park). I’m inclined to agree with him. There is no way in this world to ban anything from teenagers. At this age, human beings simply like, want, and crave situations in which they put themselves in danger.

THE PUBLIC
As I mentioned above- although the public is not allowed to participate in the discussions, the Chair repeatedly allowed the public to speak. I sat quietly as a mouse, even though I might have interjected a few times on issues that were raised. I think I had knowledge that the councillors did not have. It happened to me for the first time, and, for me, it proves that I am learning and the knowledge stays in my head. My silence also has an additional reason- after two years of ‘battling’ with Labour at STC- sometimes it is nice to just sit and listen to someone else’s problems. I know it sounds strange, but it helps me gain some distance and peace of mind.

BOMBSHELL WENT UNNOTICED
Finally, something that was mentioned in passing in the BPC, and for me, was so momentous that I wrote it down in my notebook. Well, it was mentioned that the company WOODHEAD had declared bankruptcy. If you don’t recognise the name, it’s not your fault – the name of this company is known only to people in local political circles. And when business connects with politics- it always gets hot.

The news of Woodhead’s bankruptcy, therefore, sparked a number of comments in the room. That’s not all: the next day, I visited Old Bolsover Town Council proceedings, where I again heard the names of companies being linked to local politicians- including one from Shirebrook. So my description of the visit to Bolsover will also have to start again by discussing the Shirebrook ‘touch’. Perhaps this is the reason why Labour Party politicians look unfavourably on my trips to other councils. Sometimes I find out things there that they would prefer me not to know about.

So far, all you need to know is that Woodhead is the company that built Shirebrook Town Hall and has done a lot of construction jobs for the BDC, such as building the new houses that are part of the BDC stock. The news of this company’s demise made me raise an eyebrow – until now. I had always thought contracts with government bodies were a gold mine for any private company. Look at STC’s contracts for toilets, LC heating and electricity: a vein of gold for all these companies. So why has Woodhead fallen? Is it to do with the forthcoming election and the Labour Party’s predicted loss of its majority in the BDC?

I don’t know. I won’t go into it until the residents decide to send me to the BDC- snooping in the corridors of the BDC is not my mission (and to be entirely honest- at the moment, I just don’t have time to poke around farther than STC backyard).

Sylwester Zwierzynski info@shirebrook247.com