Ferret has heard, on more than one occasion, Mr Jim Kenyon – Chair of Independent Hemsworth Town Council state that Hemsworth Town Council do not own The Fitzwilliam Centre and the previous Labour Hemsworth Town Council wasted precept payer’s money on a building they do not own.
Ferret has looked into this and can confirm once again that Mr Jim Kenyon has lied to the Community – The following is the truth:
The Fitzwilliam Old People’s Centre, now commonly called the Fitzwilliam Centre, came into being with funds donated from the wages of the miners at the former Hemsworth Colliery sited in Fitzwilliam.
The land it is built on was donated by the brewery who then owned the Fitzwilliam Hotel public house. The building was put into trust with trustees including people from the National union of Mineworkers.
On the closure of Hemsworth colliery, the Trust passed over to Wakefield Council.
During the previous Council’s term of office, the councillors were invited to a meeting being held at the Old People’s Centre.
On arrival they became very concerned about the condition that the building had been allowed to deteriorate into. Please bear in mind this was an old people’s centre.
Enquiries were made, meetings held and the Council determined that the best way to deal with this and ensure that the building was returned to an appropriate condition for the senior generation and the whole of the Fitzwilliam community to use, would be seek to take over the trusteeship.
This was not straight forward and took time, eventually it was successful, the building was returned to its rightful home, returned to the people whose ancestors had created and paid for it.
A program of refurbishment then ensued. The Centre became fit for the entire community to use at an affordable rate and incidentally provided the people of Fitzwilliam with a centre to call their own, as until this time Fitzwilliam did not have any Hemsworth Town Council amenity in their village, where functions or activities could be held – Despite paying the same precept as Kinsley and Hemsworth.
On completion of the transfer of the Trust to Hemsworth Town Council and the Councillors becoming the Trustees, contrary to what is being told to this community the Title Deeds were transferred to Hemsworth Town Council from Wakefield Council.
It appears Mr Kenyon does not know this, this is probably a good thing as he would probably try to sell it or give it away to one of his colleagues.
Or is his real objection that the people of Fitzwilliam did not vote for his Independent party?
More Kenyon lies to the community exposed, and I’ll bet the refurbishment went through proper procedures and not done with community cash handouts like this team did at the Lakeside or with staff having to work out of digger buckets. Can Kenyon open his mouth at all without ever lying, can’t wait for him to show us proof of his teacher, lecturer, builder, mental health doctor etc qualifications. Probably been busy printing some off the internet, only problem is they’ll have a Mickey mouse logo on, saying ” Jimmy fixed it”. Putting claims like these in writing can and has come back to bite you. The man is a joke and in other circumstances would be funny and laughed at but what he has conspired to do with the help of his other independent councillors is asset strip this community in plain sight, just like all the other places and people he has left in debt and tatters over his lifetime. One last rant, instead of printing Mickey mouse qualifications from the net, try printing your resignation because if you haven’t got these qualifications that’s definitely what you’ll need to do at tonight’s meeting, but remember to sign it with your own name, then disappear never to be seen or heard from again.
As a former trustee, I thank the Ferret for pointing out this FACT. I also would like to thank the Ferret for calling for a public apology for the libel and slander received by the previous Cllrs which were proved to be lies.
I was at the meetings you refer to and I can assure you that Hemsworth Town Council cannot sell the building with agreement from another interested party.
Glad to hear it.
The public apology is the very least the people involved deserve. Will Mr Kenyon be man enough to apologise at tonight’s meeting?
What an hypocritical vengeful nasty piece of crap that this Kenyon is. Whether this building is owned by the council or not is secondary to the purpose it serves. The people of Fitzwilliam are entitled yes entitled to a fair share of our community assetts and services out of the precept we all pay. So using your logic why are you spending on the Sandygate lane and Cemetery road sports facilities that previous councils either created or greatly improved, that are both I believe leased or is it because they are used by footballers and in Hemsworth, who you also provide free use to of the facilities. Don’t you also want to build stands and erect floodlights as well. By the way don’t you know that millions of properties are leasehold in this country. Stupid is as stupid is allowed to.
kinsley got nowt lol did have a youth club sold … theres a work shop at bottom of street never open use to be houses … got a park with two swings and a camping field for travellers free of charge can stay for two week ….and the public can pay the bill ..waiting to see what they got planned for car park at dog track …
There needs to be a fairer distribution of funds across our Parish, based of the electorate:
Electorate count: Ward 7
Year Hemsworth S Hemsworth E Fitzwilliam Kinsley Hemsworth W HTC
2021 2,482 3,268 1,974 1,561 1,324 10,609
2010 2,530 3,448 1,623 1,460 1,318 10,379
Changes -48 -180 351 101 6 230
Over the last 10 years we can clearly see an increase of 452 (15%) voters in Fitzwilliam and Kinsley (combined) and a decrease of -222 voters in the Hemsworth areas (combined). I’ve no idea how reliable these figures are but they are taken directly from WMDC’s
website.