Respectfully noting…

May 4, 2023

3 minutes read

The two craziest years of my life have just passed. Before I get to the point: a slight digression.

STC didn’t publish minutes since last August. Three people are working in Town Hall. Not criticising-just noting respectfully.

From December to today, STC has had one full council meeting. Cash-books are not signed off, issues are not discussed, and problems are not explained. For months! Not criticising-just noting respectfully.

Today is the election. I hope you will vote for me. I was the only councillor with 100% attendance at scheduled meetings. I fought to reduce the costs of STC’s operations. I initiated efforts to get a grant to build a CCTV and tried to help residents with issues brought to me through official channels. I have learnt a lot AND want to be a better councillor.

IT WAS A CRAZY RIDE FROM THE FIRST MOMENT
Those were the craziest years of my life. If you think about it, all the madness started at the first STC meeting. It was held not in the STC building but in the council building in Clowne. Miles away from Shirebrook.

Good start, right? Nothing out of order here?! That was normal?! Oh, no! Wait! It wasn’t normal. It was surreal. Since then, whenever I touch anything STC-related, I feel like it can’t be happening for real. It feels like I’m in a weird B-class movie or a crazy dream.

INTRIGUE
Weird deals, secrecy about them, invoices without critical data, invoices with mathematical mistakes, a political party unanimously voting not to talk about something. Weird, weird, weird.

Those who use intrigue and censorship to “not talk about something”: cannot be on the good side. Historically speaking. I am not criticising-just respectfully noting.

To this day, I can’t believe that before Labour voted on this strange resolution– I managed to get the STC to put an item on pellets on the agenda of the STC meeting. So what? The Chair decided to omit/skip this agenda item. Just like that. Like a bad B-movie – jumping from one scene to another without a word of explanation.

It is as if the opposition in parliament wanted to discuss something, and the government agreed, only for the prime minister to say during the deliberations along with the speaker: “No. From now on, we will ignore everything about it”. Isn’t that crazy? No-it’s STC. But the movie goes on. Time for…

ACTION SCENE
The movie sometimes has action scenes- to introduce physical conflict between good and evil. For me, the best action scene in this “STC: The Movie” was a punch that the Chairman of STC sent to my computer. It was insane! CCTV? 4 cameras- zero recording. I am not criticising-just respectfully noting.

This recording would be viral.

Today, I reflect on the past two years as a series filled with dull conversations about documents but exciting acting. Starring? Councillors and civil servants of STC. Civil servants: at the moment, allegedly, I can’t write about them. They are like Mandarins- beyond any criticism outside bureaucratic procedures… that they master and always keep hidden. When was the last time you heard about civil servants facing the consequences after their actions went south?

So respectfully- I won’t talk about Civil Servants. But I can write respectfully about what they did or not—no more, no less.

“To find out who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise.” Voltaire

IS IT AN END OR BEGINNING?
I was a Councillor for two years. I know I can be a good councillor- I just need more experience. If, however, my work does not convince the residents enough for me to sit in the STC Chamber as a councillor again – I will walk off into the sunset with a sense of duty well done.