(NOT SO) SECRET MEETING OF STC
(EDIT: after this publication, the internet exploded with information about this issue. I will try to gather it all in one separate article as soon as this issue is resolved. At 02.08.2025, this issue is so murky that I don’t really know who, what and why.)
There’s a weird little website from the US that makes fake coats of arms. Just for fun and… money of course (link to this website at the bottom of article). A while back, I stumbled across it and thought—why not? Let’s see if they’ve got anything on Shirebrook.
Turns out, they do! And the motto they slapped on it? Absolutely perfect for what went down at the latest “secret” meeting of Shirebrook Town Council.
This article is about that meeting. But before we dive into the murky waters of STC’s latest stunt, let me say a few words about why this random, unofficial coat of arms and its Latin motto felt so fitting I had to include it here. You see, the creators of this fake Shirebrook crest added a ribbon with a Latin phrase on it. Look for yourself:
VI SI NON CONSILIO
Obviously, I don’t speak Latin—but the AI I work with had no trouble at all with translating it. And if you happened to attend the last STC meeting, brace yourself for a big “ooooof” moment. The motto translates to: “By force if not by wisdom.” Metaphorical, right?
Now… what’s that got to do with the most recent secret gathering of Shirebrook Town Council? Let me explain. (Side note: the next part of this article is based on second-hand information, because—well—you’ll see why.) Here’s what I can confirm with 100% certainty: once again, I wasn’t allowed into the meeting. And I wasn’t the only one. Several residents were left locked out with me, politely shown the door.
Even our County Councillor was briefly unsure if the private security would let her in. To their credit, the guards were respectful enough not to block her entrance. Small mercies. Her summary of the event? Let’s just say: it speaks volumes. Here’s one line that stuck with me:
“I have been to more disbanded meetings at STC than ones that weren’t.” Need I say more?
(Side note: I strongly recommend following Cllr Sarah Reaney’s posts—she shares genuinely useful information, and unlike your average local Labour politician, she doesn’t shut down comments. Got a question? She answers. No inflated ego, no pretending she’s too important to deal with the people who lives in her constituency. Here’s the link to her post describing the infamous STC meeting: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2998104367003255/permalink/3291700904310265/ )
NOT BY WISDOM!
Once again, STC is quietly trying to pull a fast one on the residents. Let me be clear—what I’m describing is how I understand things. It might not be 100% accurate, because STC publishes nothing. Everything’s hidden behind closed doors. So how exactly am I supposed to know the truth?
Most of what I learn comes second-hand. Sometimes third. Sometimes I sit for hours digging through records and scraps online, trying to piece things together. What I write here is what I know—nothing more, nothing less.
SO, WHAT HAPPENED ON WEDNESDAY?
From what I’ve gathered, STC—alongside another organisation (I’ll get to them in a moment)—is trying to offload some of the STC property (Leisure Centre? Village Hall? Something else?) from the council’s books and repackage it as a lease to CIC (Community Interest Company).
TAX! TAX! MORE TAX!
I still don’t know exactly what they’re trying to offload—but at the last Annual Town Meeting, the Chair clearly signalled a motion to turn some town assets into a CIC. I think they want to push Leisure Centre out of the books and this “secret” deal is just “tasting the waters”. Why?
Simple—STC took on full responsibility for the building’s maintenance and property tax. Property tax alone in LC is way over £33,000 a year. LC and their 10-strong workforce, pellet system, and solar panels are bleeding the town dry. The same goes for the Village Hall—its property tax is significant, and offloading it would mean more money for the Town Clerk’s family and the local Labour mafia. On top of that, keeping the Leisure Centre on the council’s books made it impossible to bury the pellet and solar panel scandals. It’s all out in the open—we just need to find a way to bring in a proper audit to prove it. Before they destroy documents like in Creswell.
The Leisure Centre has become a black hole—swallowing a massive chunk of local tax money. Village Hall is falling apart and needs urgent investment. So now the grand idea is to quietly push some of the assets off the books and shove it into a CIC, partnered with… someone else. The agenda names “Shirebrook Town Football Club” as side in this deal.
LOOK CLOSELY!
The details of the “deal” are so wrapped in secrecy that no one outside of STC knows what’s actually going on. Is LC a part of deal or not? No idea! And STFC? Not exactly a shining beacon of transparency either. The more I looked into STFC, the more I started asking myself the same question you should ask too: “Who, exactly, is STC signing this deal with?”
COMPANIES HOUSE
STFC was(!) registered at Companies House as a Ltd—that is, a private company. And that got me thinking: why is STC pushing a taxpayer-owned property into a CIC being set up in partnership with a Ltd? So I dug a little deeper. The official HQ of STFC was listed as:
20 Wenlock Road
London
England N1 7GU
A quick look through the documents reveals that they used a “virtual” address, which is why the registration shows London-based directors. The company has 1,000,000 shares in total. The majority (90%) were held by Ryan Jake Smith, with the remaining 10% owned by Aimee Radford.
Then I found another document on the Companies House website and—well, take a look for yourself:
What does it mean? Here’s the answer from my AI:
This is an official record showing that the company SHIREBROOK TOWN FC LTD (company number: 15412708) was: struck off the Companies House register on 10/06/2025 and officially dissolved (no longer legally exists) on 17/06/2025
? What does that mean in practice?
- The company SHIREBROOK TOWN FC LTD no longer exists.
It has been removed from the UK’s official register of active companies. - It was dissolved via administrative strike-off – not through insolvency or bankruptcy. This usually happens when:
- the directors voluntarily apply to close the company, or
- the company becomes inactive and Companies House removes it automatically.
- The company can no longer operate, own assets, or enter into contracts. Its directors are no longer legally responsible for it.
I DON’T GET IT!
At this point, I just thought—wait… what? Is STC trying to sign a deal with a company that doesn’t even exist anymore? Or has STFC simply changed its status? So I started digging again. And I found the answer in a post from the “Save Our Shirebrook” group. Apparently (and yes, this is second-hand info, so take it with that in mind), STFC Ltd has now become a CIC. The change was inked on 23rd July. STFC Ltd is now: Shirebrook Town FC Community Hub CIC, with the registered address: Village Hall, Park Road, Shirebrook, NG20 8JP.
WHAAAAAT?! THEY’RE ALREADY USING THE VILLAGE HALL???
How the hell are they allowed to use a taxpayer-owned building as their registered office before any deal was even signed?! What in God’s name is going on here?! From where I’m standing: something stinks. And the cloak-and-dagger atmosphere isn’t helping calm anyone’s doubts.
Now, look—I’ll say this much: on paper, the idea isn’t entirely stupid. Turning the Leisure Centre and Village Hall into a CIC would mean an instant saving of tens of thousands of pounds and opens the door to outside grant funding. That bit? Makes sense. But the execution? Oh dear. Classic Labour-style disaster. Secretive. Sneaky. And downright insulting to the residents footing the bill.
And STFC as a community interest company? It could be a game-changer. This could be yet another good, unique thing about our town. The problem is that STFC went to bed with… Labour Party. Baaaad idea.
And if that wasn’t enough—same post, from Tina Price on SOS, included this gem: “Shirebrook Town Council intend to give use of the village hall and its grounds to Shirebrook Town Football Club via a lease.” This just doesn’t add up! Looks like they claimed building before any deal was signed, or am I wrong here? Labour-style at its best- so convoluted that easiest thing becomes a scandal.
TO SUM IT UP:
Zero public consultation.
Zero explanation.
Zero financial forecasting.
100% secrecy.
Just like that—Labour and their ex-Labour turncoats cooked something up behind closed doors. Behind the backs of the real owners—us, the taxpayers. What exactly did they decide? No clue. I have absolutely no idea what’s in this super-secret deal that directly affects taxpayers—and yet taxpayers aren’t allowed to know what’s in it.
That’s the Labour Party M.O. They genuinely believe we’re too stupid to understand the “complex” agreements they’re signing on our behalf. Like, say… the infamous pellet supply contract. Perfect example of how secret deals always seem to hurt the residents—while magically benefiting certain individuals just close enough to power.
And saddest thing is- STFC as a manager of Village Hall is not a bad idea. But the execution… Now this idea is tainted. Suspicious. Smeared by controversy and secrecy. COMMUNITY INTEREST- its in the name, for God’s sake!
BY FORCE! IN SECRET!
When I turned up to that meeting, I had no idea about any of this. I only started digging deeper after one thing caught my eye—STC suddenly decided to move the meeting outside their own buildings.
Why? No clue. No official reason given. Unofficially? Because the Town Clerk said so. Ah yes, how easy it must be to spend other people’s money. How easy it is to write fake figures into a Finance Report—just like she did in 2022/2023.
How easy it is to claim the pellet system “automatically” places orders when fuel levels run low… and completely ignore the fact that one month it placed three separate orders—and the total weight of pellets delivered exceeded the furnace’s capacity. No scandal? Or scandal?
So yes—unofficially, STC spends money on hiring external venues, even though they own three (two now?) halls of their own. Why? Because the Town Clerk fancies it that way. And you, dear taxpayer? You get to pay for her. And her brother, too—because guess what? She hired him to “help.”
I recently went through the STC AGAR report for 2024/2025. I’ll be writing more on that soon. The town is on the brink of bankruptcy. The guidance is that the town council should maintain a financial reserve equal to half of its annual tax income. In the case of STC, that amount should be around £423,000. Meanwhile, the balance carried forward in the AGAR report is… £201,000. Local taxes here are sky-high—among the worst in the UK. And yet somehow… they found money to rent rooms. Even though we’ve got three (two?) buildings where meetings could be held for free.
NEW MAYOR – OLD WAYS
I honestly thought our new mayor would bring more transparency and openness to STC. Especially when I heard he left the Labour Party. I was wrong. You can come out of Labour, but Labour will never come out of you. Our new mayor doesn’t just keep everything secret—he actively makes it harder for residents to witness the meetings. He even tried to kick residents out of a meeting in order to push through a deal that nobody in town understands.
GET OUT, GAMMONS! THE ELITE ARE TALKING NOW!
From what I’ve been told, the mayor tried to remove certain “guests” while allowing others to stay. What he didn’t expect… was open resistance. Yes—the first public rebellion in Shirebrook since the miners’ strikes. And I have a feeling there’ll be more.
MORE FUN. COURTESY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT!
Here’s another unconfirmed report I received—apparently, the mayor asked the police to intervene. To throw those 10 residents out of the meeting room. And apparently… the police refused. I don’t know if it’s true. But if it is? Then it might be the very first time the police have shown they’re not just there to cover for the Labour Party.
So what did the mayor do next? He shut the meeting down. Again. It’s becoming a bit of a habit, isn’t it? Something doesn’t go your way? Cancel the meeting! Bye! There’s the door!
VI SI NON CONSILIO
By force if not by wisdom. Yes. Ten brave residents stood up to the corrupt “elite.” God, how I wish I’d been in that room… But you know what? That magnificent ten showed what real strength looks like. For years, residents tried the reasonable way. The wise way. The democratic way. It led nowhere. So now? They showed a little force in numbers. The kind that only comes from people who’ve had enough—and aren’t afraid anymore.
HOPE. DO YOU HAVE IT? BECAUSE I’M RUNNING OUT…
And yet—despite everything—I still hold onto hope that we can solve all of our issues by openly discussing them. Hope that the change Shirebrook needs… the change our region and this whole country desperately needs… will come through democracy, not force. Residents simply have to use that democracy. Use their rights. Use their voices. Push back against corrupt, shadowy decisions made behind closed doors by Labour.
Because if I know anything about STC, it’s this: they’ll keep plunging head-first into secrecy and top-down decrees—no matter what the public thinks. Just like they keep repeating the lie that the automatic pellet heater—designed to order fuel only when supplies are low—somehow placed three separate orders in a single month. All while the Leisure Centre was supposedly shut.
Lies are like debt.
You can carry them for a while…
But sooner or later, they lead to bankruptcy.
Or they have to be repaid.
With interest.
Sylwester Zwierzynski info@shirebrook247.com
Lead picture made by Midjourney
Here is the link if you want to check your name on that weird coat of arms website:
