An Item has appeared on the agenda for an Extraordinary Council meeting scheduled for this Thursday:
ITEM 6 Kirkby Road sports Complex
To discuss possible alternative dispute resolution
Ferret is a little puzzled once again, by the wording used, as usual it is vague, no supporting material apparently being sent to Councillors with the agenda and any action that may be required is not stated.
First a little background information:
In any dispute such as this both parties are expected by the court to try to resolve matters before the court hearing, as part of the normal court procedure. The court hearing should be a place of last resort to reach a settlement.
Mediation is part of the normal court procedure to facilitate the parties to reach an agreement before the court hearing actually takes place.
The mediation meeting is scheduled for the 30/11/21 between Saul Construction Limited and Hemsworth Town Council, who are expected to try and resolve matters before the Court date in March.
This could well be the last chance for Hemsworth Town Council to avert the potentially disastrous consequences of the Kenyon led decision to rescind the contract with Saul and to limit the costs involved to this community.
But once again it would seem that the Councillors at Hemsworth Town Council (or probably some of them) are not being provided with any supporting reports that should be sent with the Summons to the meeting to enable them to make rational and informed decisions.
As the agenda does not state that any decisions are required this may be a ploy to keep the action ongoing by preventing any challenge to its continuation at this meeting, but I doubt it.
If they are to discuss “possible alternative dispute resolution” then you would expect some kind of decisions will be needed to be made from those discussions or are they just going to discuss the alternative dispute resolution itself but not actually take part in it?
If this is the case then the Councillors need to be aware that this is far from a recommended approach and would be frowned on by the Court and could end up being a very expensive decision when it comes to the awarding of costs, win or lose.
The Council needs to provide the full legal advice they have been given to all Councillors both present day and to the previous Council, when decisions were originally made if they haven’t already done so.
Ferret is also puzzled by the continued use of the exclusion of press and public to enable the Town Council to hide behind closed doors, as the contract and the issues involved have been public knowledge, having been made so by Kenyon, for many years now.
Perhaps Mr Kenyon would not like certain allegations he has been making regarding the site being heard and then action being taken against the Council which would be again costly to us but more importantly to him, it would expose his continual lying.
Over the years Kenyon’s accusations have resulted in examination of the site, on more than one occasion by:
- WMDC Contamination Section
- WMDC Tree Officer
- Environment Agency
- HSE
All the above agencies found no evidence of contamination at all and no evidence that any contamination would be created by the actions of Saul Construction Limited.
Hemsworth Town Council is in possession of these letters, so Councillors insist on having copies, as is your right.
A detailed inspection that took place also revealed nothing that couldn’t be dealt with under usual planning and building methods. Again, Councillors ask for a copy of that report from the Town Clerk.
It is also important that the Councillors take a look at the success rate of Mr Kenyon with Court proceedings, and who gave him that legal advice. Particularly following the revealing of his disastrous loss in May this year, that he kept hidden and the comments made by the Judges.
The Deal is already signed, sealed and now needs delivering, to prevent further damage to this community. This should be the main priority and not Kenyon’s inflated ego.
For any councillors who are now realising the truth about Kenyon, this is the time to act before the situation gets completely out of hand. Yes a lot of money has been squandered on trying to achieve Kenyon’s pipe dreams built on lies already, but you are now entering the final and potentially most costly and damaging to this community. Even if you retain the Kirkby road site, you’ll need £6 to 8 million pounds to build it. Kenyons figure not mine, restitution costs of millions to Saul and then the annual running costs of maintenance and staffing. This amount of money is pie in the sky. Has Kenyon ever yes ever made a success of anything? Think of Ayr and the disaster there and this planned scheme is probably 10 times more costly. Think of the unpaid Hemsworth lady unlawfully sacked from her job who he still owes well over £50,000 pounds to. These are not lies or someone else’s fault but his it’s all in black and white legally recorded. These are just two of many. Please don’t be a party to this community being made bankrupt and every precept payer having to dig deeper into their pockets to pay off debts because you failed to put your hand in the air and say no to this proven con man. Remember this township has been paid by Saul and he is trying to make the final outstanding amount that goes to Wakefield. It is Hemsworth Town Council who are breaking the deal by refusing to accept the payment. Don’t make yourselves as bad as your Council chair, abide by the law and don’t make us all regret it. Vote with the minority of councillors on this occasion and bring an end to another one of Kenyon’s scams before it is too late.
will the public have been removed for this part of the meeting
A while back (soon after the May 2019 elections), HTC created an advisory sub-committee which consisted of all Policy and Planning council members plus Mr Pringle (co-opted for his expert contributions).
Since then, I’ve not seen any minutes or any mention of this sub-committee meeting or any advice/document coming through into any council meeting.
Perhaps a Councillor who is part of this committee can provide more information?
So, have these meetings taken place or was it just a ruse to enable Cllr Kenyon to keep Mr Pringle informed. If this is the case, what exact interest does Mr Pringle have in the outcome?
Also, are we sure that Mr Pringle doesn’t attend the private Extraordinary Council meetings?
If Councillors suspect, or are aware of any wrong doings, they are required to investigate (as a responsible representative of the community).
They should ask the chair and/or the Town Clerk for information and insist that all relevant information is forthcoming. If this doesn’t work, they should raise a formal complaint and propose a no vote until there is full transparency.
All policies and procedures are in place to protect both the community from fraud and corruption, but also to protect individual Councillors culpability by default.
At the end of the day, any decisions which are made in private, which will have a massive impact on the community, will come under “forensic” scrutiny, to ensure all policies and procedures were correctly followed and that all Councillors behaved appropriately.
I have discovered that, as HTC was formed by statute, it cannot go bankrupt. Any shortfall in funds to pay for losses and liabilities will need be found by raising the precept.
By this time, Cllr Kenyon might be long gone.
Sorry, I’ve gone on too long! The current state of our council is too depressing.
Well the “new”spokesperson for Bodger has kept up their consistency of dropping themselves right in it. We’ve previously had admitted the fixing of interviews to employ a Councillor’s wife and the bad cop and bad cop aka 2 ex independent councillors, now we have straight from the Badger’s sorry Bodger’s mouth, he ” hopes that the mediation fails just so the court action can go ahead next march”
So looks like Kenyon has already made his mind up and we’re going to be footing the bill.
If he’ll go to the supreme court with no arguable point of law then this isn’t a surprise, it’s time the other councillors who support him woke up, he’s just openly said what’s going to happen and they don’t appear to have or want a say in it. Looks like we’re going to be left with a huge bill after the court hearing while he scarpers
It’s not really a council at all is it, it’s more or less a group of individuals with their own agenda and interests, a very tiny group at that whom for whatever reason or other seem to have a great sphere of influence of others whom they decieved into joining their project for no other reason than to make the necessary numbers up to achieve their ends. The one who could have been a counter balance to their worst excesses sadly supported them In it rather than put a stop to their madness and then left. What concerns me greatly is that if the worst nightmare scenario comes true and they win and go ahead with this hairbrained plan then who is going to pay for this insanity. Our best hope is that more individuals who are truly independent and not in hock to them get elected thereby stopping their madness and bringing some semblance of true accountability to the proceedings or I fear the worst. Clearly some existing councillors need to examine their consciousness and step up to the mark and oppose what they know is wrong others in a party need to oppose them at every opportunity and to go out to their electors and explain to them the reason they oppose their madness. As it currently stands they have a free reign and one only need to look at the accounts to give you a good understanding as to what they’re about and who they really are under those false veils of respectability.
Has anyone lodged a complaint to the local government and social care ombudsman or is this something for the monitoring officer at Wakefield?
The local government and social care ombudsman would be for a complaint against Wakefield Council.
You can make a complaint to the monitoring officer at Wakefield Council monitoringofficer@wakefield.gov.uk
or the Police if you believe a crime has been committed.
I would just like to take the time to say THANK YOU Ferret for the “You tube” channel . Its great…I am watching as we speak on my TV!. Its good to know where I can go to to watch videos of meetings etc. Of course if HTC screened regular meetings then you wouldn’t have to. I was not aware of it until Badger pointed it out…so for once…cheers spadger badger 😀
Can someone print out these letters / evidence from specialists and hand to the councillors at the start, If HTC won’t do it Saul should do it.
If the Clerk refuses to do it, the Councillors should be unable to discuss an item until they get all the relevant information. I’m sure the Clerk could print them straight from his laptop.