Pellet scandal in Leisure centre. Continued.

My investigation into the Leisure Centre took a weird turn. I am still determining where it will lead me, but it looks baaaad. Please look at the graph below before I write more on the subject. It shows pellets burned in the Shirebrook Leisure Centre heating system.

Same building, same supplier, same type of fuel, same demand except for the year of the pandemic and the brief period when there was a Vaccination Center at the Leisure Center. However, the average consumption had been steadily increasing until my investigation began. Only then did pellet consumption drop as if from a cliff.

1 COUNCIL REFUSES ACCESS TO PELLET BURNING INVOICES FROM THIS PERIOD.
Despite legal and accepted by Council civil servants’ Freedom of Information Act request. Despite repeated promises by the Chairman of STC to deliver all documents. Despite the Chairman of the Leisure Committee on record stating that I need to wait for all documents before I make any conclusions. I’ve been waiting for these documents for years. I asked, pleaded, begged. It’s time to change strategy.

At some point, the Labour-led Council decided to vote to withhold data. Literally- the socialists voted to never ever talk again about this scandal. Democracy and transparency and nothing shady at all. Is it even legal to vote to withhold part of FOI? I don’t know. I need help with that. I’m actively looking for it.

These first “secret” invoices could give me a baseline of the actual usage of pellets in the following years. It would also confirm how many pellets delivered at the moment of launch of the system. That’s why I was trying so hard to retrieve that data: to establish how much pellet delivered when the system was turned on and how much they delivered after. This data would also give me access to meter serial numbers and seal numbers. Those numbers should be confirmed in the original contract with the furnace supplier. I have a strong suspicion that there is something wrong there, which is why the Labour-led Council is acting so weird and making this matter “top secret”. It’s a heating system in the parish council, for God’s sake- not a defence system contract for the navy!

At this moment, I can’t write about police involvement in this scandal. I hope you understand why. But if and when I publish that article- it will be explosive.

Regardless of police involvement and role in this scandal and its solution, I can keep trying to do my thing. It’s time for my next move. About that- later.

2 THE SAME BUILDING. SAME HEATING SYSTEM. SAME FUEL, BUT PELLET BURNING IS INCREASING EXPONENTIALLY. WHY?
The “new agreement” signed by the Council FORCES the Council to increase the amount of pellets burned even if there is no need for heat. When the Leisure Center does not burn pellets (limiting the production of CO2 at the same time)- the private company supplying the pellets has the right to impose a PENALTY FINE on the Council. Read that again: it’s a penalty for ecological and economical fuel usage. How dumb or corrupt do you have to be to sign something like that??

Anti-ecology, anti-taxpayer, anti-transparency. And now the fun part: despite a mind-bending increase in burning unnecessary pellets- Council STILL RECEIVES PENALTY FINES. Gigantic, a couple thousand each fine is paid by… taxpayer. You can see those payments in reports from Council. I posted about that before.

That’s why data for the first years of the system is so crucial for me. Contracts and invoices are very valuable sources of new leads and analysis opportunities. That’s why the Shirebrook Labour Party does not want those documents in my hands.

Hilarious fact: the original agreement charged the Council only for what was burned. Nothing more, nothing less. Like you in your home.

3 ELECTION YEAR. NO COMMENT.

COVID PANDEMIC YEAR
The Leisure Centre is closed for most of the year. Worldwide hysteria, but also good news: no pellet has to be burned for heating and hot water in the Leisure Centre. No need to produce CO2. No need to spend money. But wait! What is that? Leisure Centre burning pellets like there is no tomorrow. “Automated system” somehow kept calling for delivery after delivery after delivery. Just to heat an empty building. Why? Well, for the Labour-led green revolution, it is kinda Sophie’s nightmare choice: burn and produce CO2 in closed and abandoned building or pay a fine for not burning pellets to “some” private company. There is also a third option, but to elaborate on that, I would have to have access to data from the first years of pellet burning.

After all, who cares about the environment right? Burn baby, burn!

4 BACK TO NORMAL? BUILD BACK BETTER? NOT IS SHIREBROOK!
Labour Party Councillors on record stated that the vaccination centre caused increased usage of pellets that year. If that is true, why was the pellet usage higher when the Leisure Centre was closed for a pandemic year earlier?

I have on record a few people involved in that scandal claiming that “heating was in overtime due to ventilation needs in vaccination area”. Yet, burning was higher in 2020! And if they explain that, I’ll add another question: what happened in 2018??? And why did usage fall dramatically and instantly when I started to sniff around the Leisure Centre?

5 THIS DATA SHOWS ONLY 9 MONTHS. LABOUR PARTY VOTED TO BLOCK DOCUMENTS FROM THE REST OF THE YEAR.
Why? Because when I calculated the average consumption of previous years and planted this data as prediction in the three missing months- the burning dropped significantly. Right after after I started my investigation. It fell and fell significantly, exactly to the level of 2016. To me, this is suspicious. Council? Naaaah. It’s all gooood. Who needs to save money, right? They can always raise the taxes, right? And that they will do.

What’s even more suspicious is that two Labour Party councillors conducted a “meter and seal inspection.” Still, the results and photos of that inspection were never included in the Council’s records or on the STC’s agenda. The two councillors who conducted this inspection are also implicated in another scandal I have not written about before. I’m calling it the “Tree felling scandal.” I will describe it in more detail when I find the time. Residents have a right to know about it.

Another nugget: at the request of the Chair of STC– the Town Clerk of STC cancelled the official full STC meeting at which my request to refer the contract with the supplier of pellets and solar panels at the Leisure Center for legal analysis was to be discussed. This agenda item never returned to the Council agenda. Why? Labour Party should answer that question.

THIS IS NOT THE END
What scares me is the level of indifference among Shirebrook residents. A frightening majority of the people in this town don’t give a damn about their own backyard. We pay the highest taxes, and everyone knows about nepotism, incompetence and corruption; compared to other cities in the region, our town looks like half-slams, and yet no one but hardcore Labour goes to the polls in elections. It’s as if the residents of this town like to be f in the a…

HOW IT WILL END?
I don’t know. I won’t stop until I’ve exhausted all the avenues I can legally use. I know regular readers are disappointed by my reduced activity, but rest assured: step by step, I am moving closer to the conclusion of the investigation into this scandal.

Sylwester Zwierzynski