NEW DRUG in Shirebrook! Report from Full Council 14.12.2022
I want to welcome you to my last article in 2022. The following Monday falls on the second day of Christmas, so I have decided to take a break from the publishing cycle. I will, however, prepare an article before Christmas so that something new will appear on 2 January. It will probably be a short article summarising the attendance of councillors at the “scheduled” meetings of STC. Minor spoiler: of all STC councillors, only one councillor recorded 100% attendance. Can you guess who it is?
NEW DRUG IN SHIREBROOK- SERIOUS WARNING!
Suppose you are a parent or grandparent concerned about the future of your offspring. In that case, you will also find information in the report about a ‘new’ way for young people to take drugs. This topic was raised at the meeting, and according to the councillors- this new drug is becoming an increasing problem in Shirebrook (including the hospitalisation of one of the ‘users’ of this new drug). I decided to use a photo of a canister containing this drug to illustrate this article to draw readers’ attention to this problem. I have included an additional photo and tips for parents on how to recognise that their child may be taking this type of drug (paragraph NEW DRUG WARNING).
LAST IN 2022
The last STC meeting of 2022 started with a bit of surprise. One of the councillors decided to come much earlier to the Chamber and take my seat. As the only opposition representative, I sat in that seat to hear and record precisely what the Town Clerk and Chair of STC were talking about.
This councillor did this deliberately to prevent me from recording up close. I didn’t want to make a big fuss about it, so I sat in a different seat, which in turn caused consternation among the councillors coming after me because it completely disrupted the usual seating arrangement.
Before describing the various meeting points, I must first mention the Leisure Centre heating scandal. If you are bored by this topic, then you need to scroll down the article to paragraph 2022/097 TO RECEIVE APOLOGIES AND REASONS FOR ABSENCE, in which I begin my description of the meeting.
MY CONCERNS ABOUT TOWN FINANCES
I won’t elaborate: I’ll just present an excerpt from an audio recording showing how the Labour Party is trying to prevent a democratically elected councillor from getting to the bottom of this issue. Well, in the minutes of the previous meeting, there was this flower:
In Leyman’s terms: Labour is afraid to talk about heating the Leisure Centre, so they passed a resolution banning the 28-strong STC staff from spending time on the subject despite the fact that to this day, I have not received invoices for pellet deliveries from 2013-2015, which are key to establishing the original fuel consumption.
The problem is that I found glaring errors in both reports prepared and presented by the Town Clerk. Mathematical errors, factual errors and logical errors. One of the most basic errors concealed an expenditure of £3,000 (sus!). Another error hid the existence of one of the invoices (super sus!). I describe these incidents with the word “error”. Still, I have reason to believe this was a deliberate act to divert attention from other, less obvious “errors” that I also found. STC never allowed me to discuss these ‘errors’. The STC has not spent one minute listening to the investigation’s conclusions. This is fact one.
Fact two: I still need to be given access to the documents I requested via FOI Act request in April 2022. I was refused access to these documents- a clear breach of the FOI law. With the support of the Labour Party (they voted to break the law!).
Fact three: a sentence was included in the report inviting me to Town Hall to allow me to read the contract signed on behalf of the taxpayers between AMP and STC. Apparently, according to Labour-led STC, these contracts are secret- I dispute this assertion vigorously. The taxpayer pays for it- the taxpayer has a right to know the contract’s terms. So fact three: my request for a meeting was ignored. Here is how Chair of STC Chris Kane reacted to these facts:
Chris Kane: It was put to the all councillors, about amount of time the staff spent on it, and hours it cost us, and I offered it, and it was put to bed and not spoke it again.
Chris Kane likes to put things to bed– no one who knows him is surprised by that statement. What should be surprising is the fact that the whole Labour is weirdly quiet about this chart:
It is laughable that the Labour Party has completely changed the narrative on this issue since I published the above chart. I have compiled it from the partial data available to me. I am sure the STC has the rest of the data. They know that the data will confirm what I have been saying all along, which is why the POLITICAL decision was made to break the law (FOI Act) and not release the data to me.
To make a long story short, LC’s consumption should have been around 50-60 tonnes per year because that’s what it was for the first three years of the contract. However, shortly after the new “improved” agreement was signed, the consumption increased to 80 tonnes – in the same building, system, and circumstances.
When I started looking into it- the consumption of pellets fell back to its original state. Suspicious? Like hell it is! So the Labour Party and STC narrative has been that everything is fine and I’m making something up and ‘leading people my way’. Now it’s changed. The current Labour Party narrative is: “we don’t talk about it, and no one in STC is allowed to do so as well”. A veil of silence, and if I lose the next election, Labour will return to business as usual: everything under the carpet.
As I am slowly getting into “Christmas mode”, I will not get into this now. Instead, I will start a new chapter of this scandal with the new year. I will seek legal advice and try to get the mass media interested in the matter. I will adequately consult it and ask for help from my more experienced colleagues in the Conservative Party. I will notify the MP about my concerns. Breaking the law for political purposes (not responding to FOI, preventing review of documents and contracts) will not go unanswered on my part. I will increase political pressure on this subject.
And now back to discussing the events of the STC Full Council meeting on 14.12.2022
2022/097 TO RECEIVE APOLOGIES AND REASONS FOR ABSENCE.
Two councillors not present.
2022/098 TO RECEIVE DECLARATIONS OF INTERESTS.
Interest declared.
2022/099 TO DISCUSS ANY POLICE MATTERS AND DECIDE ANY ISSUES FOR REPORT – (PAGE/S 1-5). CRIME FIGURES ARE ATTACHED FOR INFORMATION – (PAGES 1-4).
Many councillors have once again expressed their dissatisfaction with the level and quality of policing in Shirebrook. A succession of burglaries, beatings, lack of police visits to meetings and low visibility of police officers on the streets were the main complaints. Some I agree with, some I don’t. Councillor Brian Murray-Carr proposed that a meeting of all interested parties be held to invent new ways to combat crime. The motion was supported unanimously. I will just add from myself- if you are a resident who has an idea on how to make the town safer, please write about it: to me or any other councillor or the STC Town Hall address. Shirebrook has a crime problem, and there are no bad ideas on how to combat this- there are just ideas that have yet to be presented to the public.
NEW DRUG WARNING!!!
After a motion to organise a joint meeting of all crime-interested authorities and agencies was voted through, the subject of the nitrous oxide epidemic was raised. This epidemic has not taken a deadly toll, but one victim has ended up in the hospital. No one knows how this drug gets into the hands of young people, but the containers used to store the gas look like something used in commerce or industry. The warnings on the packaging are clear-it is a dangerous gas for health.
If you are a parent, pay attention to whether your child has rubber balloons or such containers. While the container is large and addicts will probably do a lot to hide them, balloons are much easier to detect. Why rubber balloons? Well, “children” fill the balloons with this gas and only from the balloons do they inhale it into their lungs.
Unfortunately, there are currently no tests available to detect the consumption of this drug. This is because it remains in the body for a very short time, and the available tests can only be carried out in a hospital and within a short period of time after consumption. It seems to me that this is one of the main reasons for the growing popularity of this drug.
What surprises me most is the ease of accessibility. These containers look expensive and should be much more difficult to access due to toxicity. Yet someone is selling these containers to children. Literally- some psychopath is poisoning youngsters in Shirebrook to make a few quid. So parents and grandparents- be vigilant!
2022/100 TO PERMIT PUBLIC PARTICIPATION PERIOD. A PERIOD OF UP TO BUT NO LONGER THAN TEN MINUTES TO RECEIVE QUESTIONS AND OPINIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC ON ANY MATTER WHICH AFFECTS THE TOWN.
The first resident came to the meeting once again with the same problem – his neighbour’s incessant barking dogs. This time the resident asked me directly for help, as previous measures had not been successful. When this resident first came to the meeting, I thought the matter would be resolved quickly – the amount of evidence was overwhelming. However, the neighbour who owns the dogs still leaves them barking outside all day. So, of course, I will try to help and approach the problem from a different angle than has been approached so far.
A second resident told of the horrors of living by the pathway, which criminals have targeted for arson and dumping ground for syringes. One thing that surprises me about this issue is that Shirebrook discussed taking over the ‘pathways’ from County Council some time ago. Why hasn’t this piece of land been taken over? If it is unused (or rather used mainly by troublemakers), then residents should have been notified of the closure and take over the area for free. I wrote about this in this article:
STC councillors, also BDC councillors, have promised to help the resident. However, STC councillors have also decided to ask DCC to close the pathway altogether which in my opinion would be the simplest solution.
2022/101 TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE TOWN COUNCIL HAVING BEEN HELD 12TH OCTOBER 2022 – (PAGE/S 6-13).
I would like to address a couple of points. The first:
As you can see, the only way left in Labour’s hands to sweep things under the carpet and stop me from looking at their hands is to hide meetings from me. So far, I have asked Town Clerk four times to notify me of every meeting. But, of course, Town Clerk always ignores me. It would cost 0 pounds and take 5 seconds (email) to notify me of an “emergency” meeting. I understand that this is “standard procedure”, but a situation where the opposition has only one councillor is not standard. I should be notified of every meeting. I am willing to sacrifice a few extra evenings to fulfil my duties properly – why is STC preventing me from doing so?
One more important thing: the Chair has announced that one of the Town Hall staff is leaving for another job. This will ensure that everything at Town Hall will be under the control of representatives of ONE family. I am not an expert on UK law, but I know for a fact that a situation like that is not legal in other countries.
Also, readers should pay attention to the second highlighted passage: this ‘incident’ is Cllr Chris Kane hitting and throwing my stuff. They hid it nicely, didn’t they? Zero apologies, zero consequence. Brutal Chris Kane continues to do as he pleases with the applause of the Labour Party and the BDC, who, by the hands of the Monitoring Officer, are delaying dealing with the complaint in this case. Everyone is waiting for me to do a similar thing so that they can use it against me because then the CCTV cameras at the Chamber will work.
My parents brought me up with a disdain for violence. I will deal with this matter following the law. Chris Kane will be reprimanded because the Monitoring Officer cannot delay indefinitely. Eventually, he will have to respond to the physical attack on the councillor by Cllr Chris Kane. If the Monitoring Officer concludes that there was no breach of the rules- this will give a legal mandate to treat other councillors in the same way. The Chamber will turn into the Thunderdome from the movie Madmax! STC will be able to sell tickets to the proceedings; bookies will take bets on which councillor will throw another councillor’s stuff further away. New times! Civility and respect will not prevail!
2022/102 TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE TOWN COUNCIL HAVING BEEN HELD 19TH OCTOBER 2022 – CONFIDENTIAL UPDATES TO BE PROVIDED DURING CONFIDENTIAL SECTION OF THE MEETING – (PAGE/S 14-15).
I cannot present the minutes of this meeting as it was entirely ‘exempt’. I will wait until they are published on the town’s website – then, I will refer to them. What happened is terrible, and I have a clear opinion about it. Many people would like me to describe this case and share my opinion.
I am actively looking for a way to do it because the law is the law. Still, I cannot remain indifferent to human suffering and political manoeuvres to hide this suffering. I have one document in my hands that cannot be exempted because it has already been made public by someone else. However, showing this document will not explain anything. It will only confuse an already confusing matter. For readers unfamiliar with the case to understand what’s going on, I would have to describe the things discussed with the “exempt” clause – and I can’t do that.
This case makes all the scandals I’ve described so far sound like child’s play because it’s not about wasting taxpayer money this time. Instead, this scandal is about human life.
2022/103 TO REVIEW THE MINUTES OF COMMITTEE MEETINGS AND NOTE THE DECISIONS THERETO;
a. LEISURE COMMITTEE MEETING HELD 2ND NOVEMBER 2022 – (PAGE/S 16-18)
Approved.
i. TO APPROVE CONSULTATION COUNTING PROCESS BY EXTERNAL PROVIDER
There was a discussion about the controversy surrounding the counting of “votes” in a public consultation on the town’s new debt. You can choose between a debt of 4 million, 9 million or 12.2 million. I won’t go into that – the whole thing is one big scandal.
What kind of public consultation is this when there is only one option left: to take on debt? Where is the choice: not to take on debt?
To sum up the controversy: “votes” will be counted by the Electoral Team of BDC (just like elections) and not by STC employees. Isn’t it another proof of the lack of managerial supervision that we discuss it after consultations and not before them?
b. OPERATIONS COMMITTEE MEETING HELD 16TH NOVEMBER 2022 – (PAGE/S 19-22)
Approved.
i. REFERRAL FROM COMMITTEE – CORRESPONDENCE CLLR. S ZWIERZYNSKI
At this point, STC discussed the letter that I sent to the Operation Committee regarding permission to shoot the film on land owned by STC (following the advice of the British Film Board). OpComm decided to delegate responsibility to Full Council. Full Council approved the request.
Here is my request to residents: if you see a film crew shooting in Shirebrook: avoid us from afar if you do not want to be in the film. According to the British Film Board- film crews are exempt from the privacy restrictions of the GDPR. So if you enter the frame during the filming of a scene, and that scene is selected for filming in the footage editing process, your person will be immortalised forever on film. We will avoid such situations, as the appearance of people outside the storyline in the frame disrupts the film’s inversion. However, I cannot guarantee that every scene can be shot without the involvement of outsiders.
But if you are okay with being in the film – a big request: DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE CAMERA LENS! DO NOT LOOK AT THE ACTORS. Walk past us indifferently, as if you were passing a normal passerby on the street or as if you were passing by the air.
To introduce ourselves to work- we will start by shooting a teaser of the feature film and a short documentary. The teaser will be a small short film outlining the plot. Then, when the warmer and longer days return, we will have a complete script ready, a crew in place, and some experience.
I am only waiting for permission from two additional locations; however, the number of places we can shoot is already adequate to describe a sufficiently developed narrative. Thanks to Derbyshire County Council, we can shoot on pavements around Bracken Road, Stinting Lane, Station Road and Park Road. Thanks to STC, we can shoot in Market Square. Thanks to permission from the Willow Tree Family Farm owners, we can add a scene on their land to the film.
Currently, the film crew is being coordinated, and equipment is being booked. Weather permitting, the first shooting will occur on Thursday, 22 December 2022. After that, there will be a Christmas break, and we will return (weather permitting) to shooting after the New Year. At the moment, I cannot predict when the last shooting day will occur (because of the weather) or even if we can finally shoot this film. However, it is better to try and fail than to do nothing and think, “what if “… I am sure it will be a fantastic adventure for everyone involved.
2022/104 TO REVIEW AND APPROVE FINANCIAL INFORMATION
a. TO REVIEW CASH BOOK ENTRIES SINCE PREVIOUS MEETING AND ADDRESS ANY QUERIES PRIOR TO AUTHORISING – (PAGE/S 25-32).
Readers! Remember that Market Square toilet for which we used to pay almost 20,000 a year, and the total amount exceeded 150,000 to date? Well, the Town Clerk has managed to renegotiate that contract, and we should now be paying less. How much less? Town Clerk mentioned a figure of 6 000, but I don’t know if this refers to the half-yearly instalment or the total. Nevertheless- a success! This saving will allow STC to shift some funds to crime prevention, right? Right?
b. TO REVIEW AND AUTHORISE BANK RECONCILIATION/S FOR CASH BOOK PERIOD – (PAGE/S 33-34). *PLEASE NOTE THE CASH BOOK AND RECONCILIATION FOR NOVEMBER ARE DRAFT DOCUMENTS DUE TO PROXIMITY TO END OF MONTH *
c. TO CONSIDER AND DECIDE APPLICATIONS FOR FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE.
i. SHIREBROOK CRICKET CLUB.
Application for £500 aid accepted. Cricket is the only sport in the world I don’t understand. Perhaps it would be a good idea for Shirebrook Cricket Club to hold a demonstration match where someone from the club would explain the rules to the audience in real-time. It seems to me that this would be an excellent opportunity to arrange a ‘family day’ on some warmer weekends and at the same time advertise the club to local people.
2022/105 TO CONSIDER RESPONSES AS NECESSARY TO LISTED CORRESPONDENCE.
a. DERBYSHIRE CONSTABULARY – E-SCOOTER INFORMATION – (PAGE/S 35).
b. SHIREBROOK ACADEMY – WORK EXPERIENCE – (PAGE/S 35).
c. BRENDAN ALLEN – ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR/LITTERING – (PAGE/S 35).
This issue was discussed in the public participation period.
2022/106 TO CONSIDER PLANNING APPLICATIONS AND REVIEW PLANNING DECISIONS – (PAGE/S 36-37).
I was not going to write about this, but I must mention it. We all know that tough times are coming. For everyone, but especially for charities and businesses where energy plays a big part (as there is no cap on energy bills like for private customers). Well, the owners of Willow Tree Family Farm (WTFF) are trying to keep their charity going by expanding their commercial offer. This commercial activity is an essential part of raising funds for the charity. Hence, after a series of successful commercial events, they decided to improve the current infrastructure with two marquees and re-surfacing of existing access lane.
The application for these changes was discussed and accepted. It has been ongoing for months. Some Labour councillors had objections and tried to block the development. Still, the owners addressed the complaints and resolved them, which meant that STC could eventually write in the box next to the application: “elected members raised no further objections”. Despite this, the application reappeared on the agenda as if it had not been discussed at all. Why? I do not know.
What’s more- the WTFF representative present at the meeting stated that he had yet to receive an email on the matter despite more than a month has passed since the decision was taken. From my point of view, it looks like “someone” is now trying to block this application at the BDC level. This “someone” failed at the STC level, but probably the fight is not over. Such a waste of time!
The WTFF is the only such place in Shirebrook and the whole District. Restricting or blocking the development of people who want to do something interesting in Shirebrook works against the entire community. The proposed changes are embarrassingly small when considering how many hops owners have had to jump until now. I have to say I admire their patience and determination in tackling STC.
2022/107 TO RECEIVE INFORMATION FROM THE TOWN CLERK.
a. BOLSOVER PARTNERSHIP & PARISH COUNCIL LIAISON – PREVIOUS MEETING MINUTES – (PAGE/S 38-41).
b. CIVILITY & RESPECT PLEDGE – TO REVIEW AND CONSIDER TAKING ACTION TO SIGN UP TO THE PLEDGE – (PAGE/S 38-41).
Something for Cllr Chris Kane as the words’ civility’ and ‘respect’ seem alien to him.
2022/108 TO RECEIVE CHAIRMAN’S COMMUNICATIONS.
a. UPDATES FROM PREVIOUS MEETING.
i. TO REVIEW PAYROLL AUDIT.
I do not know who commissioned this audit and why the spending of this money was not discussed at STC deliberations. The audit clearly omits the element of investigating whether the fact that a family of STC councillors and STC management staff are employed is just an accusation or a reality. The “Family at STC” audit cost the taxpayer £300 and dutifully hid the fact that the Town Clerk’s family had indeed ‘found’ employment with STC. I am sure the recruitment process rejected all other candidates purely on merit.
2022/109 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.
2022/110 TO REVIEW REQUEST FOR PARTNERSHIP WORKING WITH DEVELOPER.
Exempt.
2022/111 TO RECEIVE CONFIDENTIAL UPDATES IN RELATION TO AGENDA ITEM 2022/102.
Exempt.
2022/112 TO APPROVE THE DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING OF THE TOWN COUNCIL.
The next Full Council meeting is scheduled for 15 February. Again, I repeat: in my opinion, Full Council meetings should be held every month. Unfortunately, I am alone in this opinion.
