225%: That Is How Change Looks Like

I rarely praise STC, but today is the day. Since Reform and Independent councillors joined STC, there has been a noticeable change in the council’s behaviour — and now you can actually see it in the data. I have compiled it for you in easy-to-digest charts. It is all about something I have been talking about for years: the frequency of council meetings.

Before I dive into my usual commentary, one figure stands out: the frequency of STC meetings rose by 225% since Labour lost its supermajority. Let that sink in. 225%! That is what I meant when I talked about “old, tired Labour.”


As has become a recent tradition here — I have more interesting charts for you that will help you better understand the scale of the changes taking place. Before I present the data, one small explanation. I still do not know who represents whom on STC. So I have adopted a common baseline: in 2025, STC was 100% Labour. Then Chris Kane did what he did, and some honourable Labour members quit. I have estimated that in 2026 Labour lost 40% of its power, and that is how I have labelled the data.

REALITY IS CONFUSING AND MAKES ME SICK
In reality, I still do not know who is who. The majority of councillors are playing a strange game — they are members of a political party, but hesitant to advertise it. Some hold membership of both a party and other organisations, yet act as Independents. Labour councillors look ashamed. Reform councillors look confused by the scale of the corruption they have walked into. Independents prefer to sit on the fence.

We have a council chamber full of people who are scared to say who they are. If you are scared of who you are — a council chamber is not the place for you. Fear is a bad advisor. Councillors, it is time to declare your allegiances publicly. Unanswered text messages are not good enough.

POLITICS IS A GAME, A SHOWBIZ, A WAR.
STC is a political entity. Until 2025, all you needed to win a seat there was a blessing from the infamous Chris Kane and one other individual I will not name. Both, in my view, corrupted and unfit for public office. All they looked for were people who were easy to manipulate — preferably elderly and unquestioning. Those who dared to ask questions were quickly pushed aside.

Then I came along, and everything changed. After me came Tony Burns and Martin Barber. You may like or dislike any of those three people — that is your right. But the fact remains: those three individuals changed the dynamics of STC. Hopefully forever.

TO BE A COUNCILLOR
To serve on a council, you need to want it. That is it. Be yourself, work for your local community — and that should be enough. But to be a good councillor, you need to be more. You need showmanship, the strategic mind of a general and the patience of a diplomat. You need to be a writer, a speaker, an organiser. You need thick skin and a sharp tongue. You need to attend every meeting, stay invested and be willing to fight. You need to know what you stand for and what you are fighting for. You need a spine. And above all – you need to stand for something. (for me its easy: transparency, anti-crime, no tax rises, AI as a tool for future).

We, the residents, have the right to know what our councillors stand for. That is a voter’s fundamental right. We have elections for precisely that reason — so that people know who believes in what. People vote for those whose values and vision resonate with them. The problem is that right now, nobody knows who is who, who stands with whom, or what any of them actually believes in. In some ways, STC has become even more secretive than when it was 100% Labour. The evidence? This week alone, we have two STC meetings — both of them exempt, meaning closed to the public.

As much as I welcome the increased meeting frequency, I am deeply uncomfortable with STC still preferring to operate behind closed doors.

I AM A FORCE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE AND TRANSPARENCY
And that is why I give you my word: I will challenge this and change it. As soon as my day off aligns with an STC meeting day, I will attend a Full Council meeting and ask each councillor directly: who are you? To their face, on camera. Before that, I will contact every councillor who has published their email address on the STC website with the same question: “Who are you representing?”

We have a right to know who represents us and with whom they are aligned. Enough sitting on the fence. Enough fog of war. We are approaching 100 days since Labour crumbled and almost brought the whole town down with them. We — the people who love democracy, the people who love Shirebrook — need to know who stands for what.

Don’t we, David?

SHOW US THE DATA!
Let us get back to the subject of this article. If you compare STC’s activity in the first three months of 2025 with the first three months of 2026, you will see something remarkable — a 225% increase in meeting frequency. You saw this chart at the top of the article, but just to remind you of the scale of Labour’s failure — here it is once more. There are more later on.


4:13 — ADVANTAGE: NEW COUNCIL
A brief commentary. Old Labour was so lazy and embroiled in internal scandals and infighting that it completely abandoned the issues facing this town. You may not know this, but I do — there was a war inside the local Labour group. They hid it quite well, but they could not hide the losers: Kane, Peake, and one other individual I will not name.

As a result of those internal battles, they managed just 4 STC meetings in 3 months. The bare minimum. All decisions were made somewhere outside the council chamber, and they gathered only to rubber-stamp them. The result? Degradation. Deprivation. Corruption. Nepotism. And ultimately — revolt. Some Labour councillors finally saw what I had seen all along, and said: enough. I quit.

MARCH MADNESS
Old Labour held zero meetings in March 2025. Taxes? Raised. Scandals? Swept under the carpet. Kane? Well…


This is when I hit them hard. Letters, emails, phone calls. I worked my back off while the town slept. I knew, better than anyone, what they were and what they were doing — and I used that knowledge against them. Over my life, I have learned one crucial lesson: wrongdoing thrives in darkness. So each time I felt the wall beginning to crumble, I pushed something into the light.

I kept shining that light and reminding them — I am here, and I am going nowhere. I know more than you want me to know, and I am not afraid of your threats, the destruction of my property, your letters or your legal manoeuvring. It was a war fought in shadows, and I felt them weakening with each ray of sunlight. That is why I worked so hard. That is why Labour is wary of me. Because now I have more than just fire in my gut. Now I have experience. Now I know how to use that light more effectively.

MEETING BREAKDOWN
There is a saying: a picture is worth a thousand words. Just look at it. My charting tool ran out of space to display the number of meetings in February 2026. That is what a dedicated council looks like.


But there is a sad reality behind that chart — Labour is exploiting the opposition. Particularly Oliver Kershaw-Dickson, Andrew Stevens and Shelley Arapi. These councillors are working their backs off to straighten out the ship. They ask the right questions, they attend the meetings, and they read the documents. They bring real-life experience that could genuinely be used for the common good — and they do their best regardless of the surrounding laziness (Gobey and Murray especially).

When I sit as a guest at a Full Council meeting and I observe — I see a visibly confused Labour councillor Murray, a Labour councillor Gobey who rarely utters a single word, a rambling Dale Smith, the hubby of BDC leader that never visits STC — I see the same old pattern. Labour is still playing the Kane game. Still pretending to care about Shirebrook, while in reality caring only about Labour.

DON’T BE SCARED. HELP IS COMING. IN 2027.
I am concerned that the energy of these hard-working councillors will be wasted. That they will be betrayed, lied to and exploited. I am concerned that Labour will attempt to compromise them — and use their relative inexperience to bend the Standing Orders and STC policies, just as they did during the co-option meetings. I can only hope that these councillors are sharp enough to learn quickly and see through Labour’s political games before it is too late.

Labour is so determined to impose its “we leave politics behind the chamber door” policy. If they are truly committed to that principle — can they please investigate the pellet heating scandal? Or is that being quietly set aside for political reasons: net-zero ideology and the Labour brand to protect?

Sylwester Zwierzynski info@shirebrook247.com
Lead picture: made with Midjourney

PS. You can read e-mail I sent to all councillors of STC to establish political aliances.

Subject: Political Affiliation and Representation — Request for Clarification

Dear Councillor [Name],

My name is Sylwester Zwierzynski. I am the author and editor of Shirebrook247, an independent local news blog covering governance, transparency and public accountability at Shirebrook Town Council.

I am writing to ask one straightforward question:

Who do you represent, and what is your current political affiliation?

Residents of Shirebrook have a democratic right to know the political alignment of those who represent them on the Town Council. This information is fundamental to informed democratic participation and public accountability.

I would be grateful if you could confirm:

1. Your current political party membership, if any.
2. Whether you are standing as an Independent, and if so, whether you are aligned with or supported by any political organisation.
3. Whether you are a member of any local political group or organisation active in Shirebrook.

Please be aware that this email will be published in full on Shirebrook247 as an open letter, along with any response you choose to provide. If I do not receive a response within 14 days, I will note that no reply was received.

I thank you for your time and look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely, Sylwester Zwierzynski, Editor, Shirebrook247
www.shirebrook247.com