“Now here’s a little story and to tell it is a must,” is a line from the Lonnie Donegan song: My old man’s a dustman.
Older readers may remember it, but what has it to do with The Eccles’, Draper and the safety of our community you may ask?
You may recall the generous offer, Independent Hemsworth Town Council received a couple of years ago from the Eccles’, to use one of their own vehicles for the Christmas run around Hemsworth, Kinsley and Fitzwilliam, complete with Jim Kenyon as the Santa in disguise, but the generous offer had a sting in its tail.
In return, the Town Council had to foot the bill for making it roadworthy and it apparently didn’t come cheap.
Now move forward to Christmas 2022 and that vehicle of the Eccles’ was draped in all the Christmas finery as it was utilised once again to tour our 3 villages.
So what is the problem, have we had to make it roadworthy again?
Ferret as yet does not know if the Town Council have funded any repair work this time, but what Ferret can tell you is the vehicle is NOT allowed to be on the road at all.
Its MOT certificate expired on the 15th November 2022 and it has a statutory off road notification (SORN).
Once you declare a car that a car is SORN, it means that you are confirming your vehicle will be kept off the road.
This means you avoid paying any fines for not paying road tax.
It also means, that if being used illegally on the road as this was, it would be uninsured.
Other road users, pedestrians and its driver would not be covered by insurance in the event of an accident.
Our children, their families and all other road users were potentially put in genuine danger by the negligent acts of at least three people in positions of authority who should know better.
Ferret has a few questions that must be answered as a matter of urgency:
- Why did the Eccles’ allow this vehicle to be used without any tax, MOT or any valid insurance?
- Was the driver aware he had been put in this position of driving without road tax and insurance?
- Why didn’t Mr Draper carry out the routine checks on this vehicle for tax, MOT and insurance cover?
- Why did all those involved put our community in very real danger using a vehicle without tax and insurance?
The evidence in this case is overwhelming, including the videos which Alan Draper chose to share on Social Media proving their illegal acts.
Independent Hemsworth Town Council and the individuals involved must believe they are untouchable and above the laws of the land.
However, Ferret has to say they do apply to them, as well as us mere “SCUM”.
As this is so serious, Ferret believes that all involved should RESIGN immediately.
If Mr Draper, fails to do so, he should be suspended immediately for gross misconduct for failing to carry out the basic checks to keep people safe.
Hemsworth Independent Town Council: The Eccles’, Draper and the safety of our Community…
Ferret believes it is time the truck went on the dustbin cart along with the Eccles’ and Draper…
Can this be reported to the police retrospectively? Can a video be used in evidence in the same way rishi was caught out?
A Total disgrace the lot of them and they call the good people of our community scum,agree with you Anonymous time to bring in the police,just imagine if cars had been coming up park hill behind the non road worthy vehicle with children in the cars and it had lost control could have caused injury’s or even worse .
The people of our community really do now need to bombard the Town Clerk with questions ,email him,ring him,send in FOIs or simply go and ask to see him,we the community need and deserve answers will we get the truth unlikely.Time for the lot to go .
Well, maybe they’d left the car at Rogerthorpe Manor? Had to thumb a lift from a good samaritan. The running of this Council is farcical and I won’t go on about the forensic audit… Which apparently even good councillors say I’m fixated on. Nope, I won’t. But I will say put this together with the blatant disregard for DBS checks and isn’t there a character building exercise going on here? HTC the Council that doesn’t care about legality and public safety? More important to get new toys… 2 or 3 or more body cams… oops, we better not use the cameras had we Alan? Not until we learn all about the dangers of posting evidence on the Web.
Wow ferret you certainly have got the community talking today a huge Thankyou,the more we read the worse it gets and the community are taking off the blinkers and questioning everything that the Independent HTC councillors have been up to.
Let’s just hope back dated certificates don’t suddenly appear from Councillor Kenyons loft.
What a shambles doesn’t the town clerk realise he his duty-bound to oversee HTC affairs, as a minimum he should have carried out due diligence to see if the vehicle was road worthy and asked for documentation to back it up, if this vehicle had been in an accident, I would have thought any insurance on it would be invalid
This town clerk is totally out of his depth and it’s embarrassing do the right thing RESIGN
Why doesn’t a Councillor stand up at the next meeting and put a vote of no confidence in the clerk one things for shore we would find out which side of the fence councillors are on and the parishioners would no as well.
Not everyone is on FB can FB post be put on this site and visa versa???
Do you mean the comments?
Yes peoples comments
Only if they post themselves on both.
That’s a shame, keep up the good work 👏
Keep going ferret then put up for council HTC needs you.
If the town clerk is on £52 k per annum , he is not going to walk, the councillors have to put pressure on him and make his position unacceptable come on councillors.