TOWN CLERK OF SHIREBROOK TOWN COUNCIL
The STC “civil service” splits neatly into three tribes: Labour Party friends and family, the Town Clerk’s friends and family, and — in a distant third place — those who actually do some work. Last time I checked, 28(!) people were on the STC payroll. That’s more than eight councils combined in our area. A mountain of salaries, a molehill of results. Time to show readers what that bloated payroll really means.
At this point, everyone knows the Labour politicians abandoned the sinking ship of STC. But let’s not fool ourselves — Labour’s collapse is only half of the dark force that dragged this town down. The other half?
CIVIL SERVICE
Shirebrook’s residents are footing a bureaucracy bill that dwarfs anything I’ve seen elsewhere. Take a look at the numbers. Our town has 13,300 residents. I compared us with Ripley (20,000 people) and with Stocksbridge — which has the exact same population as Shirebrook. The result? Outrageous.
From my point of view, the Civil Service of Shirebrook is devouring this town. We have no programmes for the elderly, no youth projects, no safety initiatives, no digitalisation of council, no beautification of streets — because they eat the whole cake. Everything. Crumbs and all. To feed this endless appetite, they raised taxes in 10 out of the last 11 years — and yet the town still looks like rubbish compared to Bolsover, Clowne, or South Normanton. So where does all that money actually go?
At the top of this pyramid of waste sits…
TOWN CLERK FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Brother and sister and… wait. Let’s focus on these two little rascals: the most elite siblings of Shirebrook. The sister hired her brother, with the Labour Party’s blessing. Then Labour handed everyone a 27% pay rise to keep them in line and plug any leaks. Why not, eh?
But did a single Labour councillor dare to say out loud that hiring family members sounds like the dictionary definition of “nepotism”? No? Don’t believe me? Check that word yourself in dictionary— nepotism. I dare you.
Now, to be precise: under British law, there isn’t a blanket ban on hiring family members into government administration. I accept that. Weird as hell, but I accept it. Still, placing two key posts in such a small town into the hands of one family is… let’s say, “icky.” And believe me, I’m being polite here — far stronger words come to mind. It stinks of nepotism, corruption, and conflict of interest. It screams: THIS IS NOT RIGHT!
THE LIST
What follows is my subjective, short list of bad experiences with the Town Clerk. These are drawn from three periods: before I won a seat on STC, while I was a councillor, and after. Below this list, I’ll provide links to articles with hard evidence, links to articles with audio recordings, documents, quotes.
All of it paint picture of Town Clerk that is deeply incompetenet, borderline criminal in procedure following and honestly- just lazy. This is why I believe the Town Clerk should be suspended, investigated, and dismissed — most likely via disciplinary procedure with a possible criminal referral. And yes, her brother should be removed from any access to documentation during such an investigation.
Here’s the charge sheet as I see it:
- Evidence of deep political bias: some councillors are forbidden from doing things others are allowed; some can propose agenda items, others can’t; some get easy access to her, others are stonewalled.
- She holds at least three jobs I know of (also Clerk for LPC, plus publishing in The Post — a Labour propaganda rag which itself got STC money. Bias, conflict of interest, and… surprise surprise… nepotism). Lawful but awful? You bet.
- In an official meeting, she told me I couldn’t speak publicly about the “BDC bridge loan.” That was flat-out false: BDC had already published all the info.
- She falsified documents — at least one invoice and at least one Finance Report.
- She published reports with obvious errors and missing data (AMP Report – Pellet scandal) and never corrected them.
- She hid facts from councillors and the public (e.g. MP’s office twice requested a meeting with STC, she never replied; she secretly extended the BDC bridge loan without informing councillors).
- She refused to share documents and recordings (pellet contracts, invoices, CCTV of a Labour councillor’s violence toward an opposition member, even an audio recording of a full council meeting requested by a councillor).
- She routinely ignores FOI requests (I’ve got at least two still unanswered).
- She repeatedly delayed publication of minutes and agendas. For me, that’s not an accident — it’s a pattern of incompetence.
- She hired her own brother — and I strongly suspect the qualification requirements for such a post were conveniently ignored, since he was too young at the time to hold them. Family firm, Shirebrook style.
- She turned a blind eye to bizarre activity at the Leisure Centre, which screams problems with the “net-zero” heating system. Example: the automated system allegedly burned more pellets in March than in the entire winter; usage jumped by 30,000 kg per year, and she never flagged it.
- She signed off invoices with wrong sums (Pellet scandal again), all while parading as Responsible Finance Officer.
- She paid invoices missing basic data: no unit descriptions, no consumption info, no meter readings, wrongly calculated totals.
- And recently? She’s been constantly absent from town meetings and unreachable by email or phone. A Clerk who isn’t there.
Is it enough for you to question her competence?
FOR LABOUR!
For the Labour Party, she was… convenient. A classic “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” arrangement. But she did far more damage than that. She didn’t just ignore broken procedures — she actively helped Labour to break them. Sometimes, she even did it for her own reasons. Example? She refused to share the recording of a Full Council meeting because, in her own words, she made it on HER phone. Did she ever hear about the “copy/paste” procedure?
And then there’s the CCTV scandal. Twice, when vile and undemocratic events unfolded in the Council Chamber, she claimed the cameras were “off.” Really? Four cameras, and not one working during the only events that actually needed recording? One of those videos would have gone viral. Leftist violence in the Chamber — and the Town Clerk helped bury it. Evil loves shadows, and she was happy to draw the curtains. For Labour!
Was the CCTV switched off on purpose, or was it gross incompetence? Either way, it reeks. Why even install cameras if they’re switched off the moment things get serious? Riddle me that. I dare you.
TAIL WAGGING THE DOG
Civil service in today’s Britain has morphed into a separate, untouchable class. Above the law. Above criticism. Above limits. Evidence below. They are the only fully unionised aristocracy left in the land. It’s another pillar of the two-tier society our parents and grandparents never voted for: inefficient, corrupted, anti-resident, pro-crime, anti–free speech — a system quietly devouring the UK from the inside.
In the private sector, if you make a mistake, waste resources, or dip your hand in the till, you’re fired or criminally investigated. In the civil service? No matter how big the loss to taxpayers, it gets swept under the carpet of secrecy and double standards. Name three scandals where civil servants paid fines or went to jail. Name one. I dare you.
Civil servants are shielded by a labyrinth of rules designed to protect themselves, not the public. Even when something is investigated, nothing changes. No one is punished. For them, scandal is just an excuse to create more rules, more positions, more binders, more meetings. More bureaucracy — always paid for by you.
LEFTIST ALWAYS BLOAT CIVIL SERVICE – THEY ARE NATUAL ALLIES
Old Labour’s proudest achievement in Shirebrook? Creating nearly 30 “government” jobs — and then convincing taxpayers not to compare our costs with other towns because, supposedly, “we deliver so much more.” Have you walked through Bolsover lately? Does it look like we’re getting “so much more”? Please.
Shirebrook Labour was corrupt, and probably still is. Civil Service? Just look at documents, facts, quotes below. Town Clerk was pivotal figure in this system. Their con trick was simple: persuade you that less money in your pocket is somehow good for you. A lot less.
We now pay our civil service more than any comparable council I could find. I wanted to prepare a full table of comparisons — so I reviewed hundreds of AGAR reports from councils across the country. Guess what? I couldn’t find a single one with higher taxes and bigger bureaucracy costs than Shirebrook. (Creswell came close, but still behind us.)
Don’t believe me? Fine. I dare you. Find a town council with roughly 13,300 residents (give or take 1,000) that spends more than we do on bureaucracy and collect more taxes. Go on. I’ll wait. I DARE YOU!
LIST OF HARD EVIDENCE
I went through nearly 200 articles on my blog to compile this list of the most brazen examples of the Town Clerk’s behaviour. This isn’t cherry-picking — it’s a catalogue of patterns: delay, bias, secrecy, incompetence, nepotism.
Below you’ll find direct links and quotes from those articles. Read them yourself, check the dates, see the evidence. Don’t just take my word for it — the record speaks louder than I ever could.
10 March 2020
Evidence of Town Clerk publishing articles in Labour Party “The Post”.
Best quote from that article:
The funniest thing is the fact that two out of those five articles were written by councillors, one was written by an STC employee (Town CLerk) and one by a local police officer. Do you now understand why I stated in the title that TP is the mouthpiece of the establishment? Do you really expect to read about the multiple scandals related to STC in this “newspaper”? “
23 May 2020
Best quote from that article:
At some point, I thought to myself – if two meetings can turn upside down my perception of the town, what else I can find in the minutes from previous town council meetings? So I went to the town website, I found archives and… there was nothing since April 2019.
Comment: To put it simply: The Town Clerk’s family didn’t publish any minutes between April 2019 and May 2020.
21 August 2020
Best quote from that article:
It’s been 5 months and 2 days since the last full Town council meeting.
To put simply: there were times when the Town Clerk didn’t summon councillors for five months in a row. To be honest, I’m not sure if that was more the fault of the Town Clerk or the Labour Party, because I found later more information about it. Read on- you got so far, don’t stop now 😉
1 Nov 2020
Best quote from that article:
When they(STC) finally decide to meet in July, they do it not because they care about town- they were forced by BDC just to discuss the financial audit. They met in secret- without notice on the town’s home page. Till today I have no idea who was on this meeting, what other topics were discussed. Nothing.
This statement about the importance of local democracy above is obvious and brazen manipulation- our local Labour despises democracy. And The Post confirms that on page 10 in Town’s Clerk Report where you can read contradiction to statement from page 2 :
“It was decided and agreed, by members at this meeting, to suspend all council meetings for another three months (…)”
Comment: Another evidence of the Town Clerk writing for The Post. Do they pay her, or does she do it for free? Because if she is volunteering for the Labour Party and neglecting her JOB at the same time- I think that is a basis for disciplinary dismissal.
13 March 2021
Best quote from that article:
It took STC (Town Clerk) a year to publish minutes from February 2019 meeting. (…) We could only speculate why STC delayed publishing of this document but we won’t do that. Instead- we invite you to read our analysis of this murky situation.
Comment: Do you see pattern of incompetence? Jennifer Jeffery is pathological in breaking laws regulating council document publication procedures. There is no other way to describe that.
5 July 2021
Best quote from that article:
I ask to be notified about every meeting and underlined that I want complete documentation before: I was ignored.
Comment: As the only member of the opposition, I repeatedly asked the Town Clerk to notify me of every STC meeting. The Town Clerk ignored this request, repeatedly concealing the meetings from me. I don’t know if that’s illegal, but for sure its yet another evidence of her behavioural patterns.
13 September 2021
Best quote from that article:
I asked for a recording right after the meeting- in person and through email. When I asked if I could get a copy of the recording, STC leader Chris Kane replied bluntly “-NO”. No explanation, no reason, nothing. When I came back home- I wrote an email with a request to secure a recording and release it to me. For a long time, my email was ignored, as well as ALL of my renewed requests (yeah- there was more than one ignored email…).
I was relentless and finally Town Clerk replied:
“I presume you are therefore referring to the cameras installed in the meeting room? If that is the case; the system was installed as part of the new building but has never been used or monitored. I’ve now had this looked at and it does briefly record for a number of hours but then constantly overwrites itself without storing the recordings anywhere. It also does not record sound at all. “
Comment: This is yet another example of Town Clerk bias- I’m 100% sure that if someone attacked her or a Labour Party member, CCTV recording would be ready to hand to the police. When it’s the Uniparty breaking the rules, there are no CCTV recordings, and e-mails are left unanswered. And why did the Labour Party rubber-stamp the installation of the system that doesn’t work??? How much did this state-of-the-art system that can’t even store a recording cost us? Why is it even there? Just for decoration?
And just to add one more nail to the Labour Party’s coffin, those are three quotes of words spoken to me at that meeting. It wasn’t Town Clerk saying those words, they came straight form Labour Party councillors:
“I will wipe that smirk off your face!”
“Shut up!”
“I know where you live!”
27 September 2021
Best quote from that article:
Some time ago, I met with Town Clerk to discuss a range of issues. One of the issues I wanted to discuss was the town’s debt in relation to the deficit in the town budget and the threat posed by rising inflation. Sooner or later rising inflation could translate into higher interest rates and thus even more rapid growth of interest on the still outstanding debt of our town. Unfortunately, when we got to the juicy part- I was forced to switch off the recording device.
Comment: I was right about rising interest rates. Yet another evidence of Town Clerk blurred lines between public and private. BDC- lender of mentioned “debt” had no issues with publication of all documents. But Town Clerk lied to me that this issue is EXEMPT. It wasn’t. THEY just didn’t want people to know.
11 October 2021 (one of the most insane articles on S247)
https://shirebrook247.com/2021/10/11/labour-party-guide-on-how-to-lose-68000-in-just-two-months/
Best quote from that article (this is not about Town Clerk action but more about her management style):
One of the things that shocked me was the number of people working in the Leisure Centre. There are 17 people on the Leisure Centre payroll. Yeah- you read it right: seventeen. When Town Clerk told me that, I thought I heard it wrong. I would accept a still high number of 7. But 17? In such a small building? In my opinion, that would explain why Shirebrook spends 100% more than Bolsover or South Normanton and in effect: have to put 100% higher taxes on residents.
18 October 2021
https://shirebrook247.com/2021/10/18/stc-full-council-meeting-report-13-10-2021/
Best quote from that article:
A few weeks ago, I was promised by the STC Chairman and Town Clerk that the issue of town debt would find a place in the agenda of the next full council meeting. It didn’t. Why? No idea.
8 November 2021
https://shirebrook247.com/2021/11/08/stc-leisure-committee-meeting-report-03-11-21/
Best quote from that article:
Therefore, I ask Town Clerk for a copy of the “LC supervisor report” at the meeting and after the meeting through email. Unfortunately, at the time of writing this article, I still have not received a copy of the report, so I cannot present the details contained therein. (I never received requested documents; she just ignored me).
21 February 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/02/21/historical-day-for-oh-so-many-reasons/
Best quote from that article:
For the first time, the Labour Party councillor asked to record the Shirebrook Town Council meeting- this is a historic moment. I hope that the recording will not be “overwritten” to hide what the Chair of STC and Town Clerks did at this meeting.
Fun fact: Town Clerk refused to give me copy of that recording. I assume it was… “overwritten”…
25 April 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/04/25/could-you-please-help-me-understand-this-stc-invoice/
Best quote from that article:
To understand what this situation is all about, I asked it directly at the STC meeting. The answer? According to Labour Party councillors and Town Clerk- everything is fine.
Bottom line here is this: Town Clerk, Responsible Finance Officer, accepted and paid invoices with wrong figures, without meter readings, with wrong units. Literally nothing on that invoice is OK.
23 May 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/05/23/shirebrook-debt-heavily-redacted-and-shameful-secret-of-stc/
Best quote from that article:
I‘ve been trying to find out what “quantity” means on an invoice from AMP for a month. I still do not know! Transparency Labour style! I wrote another Freedom of Information Act request to investigate the complete AMP documentation. The 21 days stipulated by the Act to reply have passed – Town Hall has not responded.
https://shirebrook247.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/pic2.jpg
6 June 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/06/06/put-it-on-agenda/
Best quote from that article:
So far, all my attempts to add items to the agenda of STC meetings have been fruitless. I have therefore decided to make my current attempt public.
Comment: this one goes to Monitoring Officer who said at one of the STC meetings that items not on agenda can’t be discussed. Bud! Town Clerk constantly and reapetedly refused to put on agenda items proposed by opposition. Bias evidence number… too many to count.
20 June 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/06/20/not-on-agenda/
Best quote from that article:
As usual, the agenda items proposed by me were not on the agenda of the Full STC meeting.
4 July 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/07/04/enter-the-stc-matrix/
Best quote from that article:
The avoidance of answering questions, ignoring FOI requests by Town Hall, breaking of Standing Orders by the Chair of STC, biting comments, shouting, and passive-aggressive comments (which I ignore so as not to add fuel to the fire) has become commonplace.
18 July 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/07/18/orwell-was-right/
Best quote from that article:
After the meeting, at home, I listened to the recording of what the councillors and the Town Clerk said. (…) Unfortunately, what caught my attention at the meeting, was quickly trivialized by the councillors Labour Party and Town Clerk. It turned out, however, that I was right again, and everyone in the room was wrong.
29 August 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/08/29/stc-heating-scandal-still-not-explained/
Best quote from that article:
Question 8:
Error? Admin error? Really? Don’t say! So AMP says there were shenanigans right after I won a seat at STC. BIG shenanigans.
5 September 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/09/05/leisure-comm-and-full-council-meetings-report/
This time two best quotes from that article:
1: Among the documents discussed at the LComm meeting on 8/31/22, I found the meeting minutes, which were not present in the STC “APPROVED MEETING SCHEDULE”. I have not received an invitation or any information about this meeting.
2: For example, on the STC website, there are no minutes from AGM, which was in May 2022. All minutes from all meetings since then- missing.
Comment: Secret meeting, no notice for opposition, no minutes published for months? It is business as usual under our Town Clerk.
13 September 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/09/13/town-hall-refused-to-disclose-the-recording-again/
Best quote from that article:
This is the second time since I sat on the STC that I have been denied access to a recording made at an official STC meeting. Just so there is no doubt- Town Clerk decided to deny access to the recording solely to hide from residents what was going on at the STC.
17 October 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/10/17/nepotism-in-stc-you-decide-full-council-report-12-10-22/
The whole article is about the nepotism of the Town Clerk. With added documentation “adjusting”.
7 November 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/11/07/illusion-of-choice-plans-for-new-leisure-centre/
Best quote from that article:
As I mentioned: even though I am a councillor, the Town Clerk did not inform me of the meeting at which the plans were deliberated on how to advertise this consultation paperwork.
19 December 2022
https://shirebrook247.com/2022/12/19/new-drug-in-shirebrook-report-from-full-council-14-12-2022/
Best quote from that article:
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.
9 January 2023
https://shirebrook247.com/2023/01/09/energy-cost-crisis-in-shirebrook/
Best quote from that article:
In this case, the saving of taxpayer money is small. It’s hard to judge accurately because the Town Clerk ignored my request for details of the LC power supply contract.
30 January 2023
https://shirebrook247.com/2023/01/30/to-be-or-not-to-be-that-is-the-shirebrook/
Best quote from that article:
(This is about 75,000 grant for Village Hall I found). As soon as I saw this opportunity, I sent the Town Clerk the following email:(you can read it in article). Email sent on 3 January 2023. To date – no response. The deadline passed on 20 January. Proposal to sponsor an account on the “grantonline” website- unanswered. (yeah- I offered to sponsor account on special grant vendors website- offer was rejected by Labour Party).
15 February 2023
https://shirebrook247.com/2023/02/15/exempt/
Best quote from that article:
I received a call from the BDC Monitoring Officer advising me to take down the last post on my blog and Facebook as “public criticism of the Town Clerk by councillors” is not allowed.
4 May 2023
Best quote from that article:
STC (Town Clerk) didn’t publish minutes since last August (over a year!!!). Three people are working in Town Hall. Not criticising-just noting respectfully.
And one more for good measure:
From December to today (4th of May), 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.
15 May 2023
Best quote from that article:
Once again, I have to write about the incompetence of Jennifer Jeffery – STC Town Clerk. There are only two reasons why the ‘errors’ I show below were included in the report presented at the ‘Precept Meeting’. The Town Clerk deliberately placed these errors in the report or (she made them) due to her incompetence. There is no other possibility.
29 May 2023
Best quote from that article:
My personal opinion is that the town clerk is a nightmarishly incompetent person, and with someone like Chris Kane next to her and certain councillors who are in the habit of going beyond their remit with impunity – tragedy has hung in the air for a long time.
27 July 2023
Best quote from that article:
Jennifer Jeffery, Town Clerk of STC, once again broke the law. She completely ignored a properly sent FOI Act request. I sent it on 3 July, and I know it arrived in STC’s inbox because I called STC a day later to confirm that my letter had arrived.
Receipt of the letter was confirmed by the Town Clerk’s brother, who is also a Town Hall employee-all in the family, right?
21 August 2023
Best quote from that article:
Just whole article. All about “editing of data”, incompetence and nepotism.
20 October 2023
Best quote from that article:
Again- whole article about corruption of STC under leadership of Jennifer Jeffery.
22 February 2024
Again- whole article exposing incompetence, corruption, lack of scrutiny by STC Town Clerk.
14 June 2024
Best quote from that article:
The Town Clerk sent a Council employee paid for by Shirebrook residents’ taxes to work for a private company (…)
23 July 2024
Best quote from that article:
Town Clerk of STC, Jennifer Jeffery, once again neglecting her duties and breaking the law. The Local Government Act 1972, Paragraph 41(3) states that the minutes of the proceedings of a meeting of a local authority shall be open to inspection by any local government elector of the area of the authority.
Meanwhile, a week before August, the last STC published minutes came from the March meeting!
9 March 2025
https://shirebrook247.com/2025/03/09/beware-the-ides-of-march/
Best quote from that article:
Shirebrook Town Council (STC) breaking the law once again. Twenty one days ago, I submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, and to this day there has been no response. The deadline expired, and I received no answer.
8 May 2025
https://shirebrook247.com/2025/05/08/666-votes-of-labour-party/
Best quote from that article:
According to the Town Clerk, the STC, which employs more staff than any other council in the region, can’t spare a single worker to look for the documents. Even if I paid for their overtime. (yes- I offered to pay for STC overtime just to find missing documents in Pellet scandal- Labour Party and Town Clerk rejected the offer).
The Town Clerk refused, and Labour went with it gladly.
THE END IS NIGH
That’s the “our Jenny” track record. Not rumours, not gossip — documents, minutes, invoices, and direct quotes.
If this is what passes for “professionalism” in Shirebrook, then no wonder the town is drowning in taxes, incompetence, and scandals. And let’s be honest: no Clerk with this pattern of behaviour can expect to keep skating forever. Accountability comes sooner or later — and I think Shirebrook is ready for it.
