Members of this community have been expressing their concerns, on a very regular basis but always about the same issues with Hemsworth Independent Town Council.
Financial mismanagement, staff welfare, facilities maintenance and key ones that involve all the others: Honesty, openness and transparency especially in decision making.
The Nolan principles of conduct in public life have been openly disregarded; we have even seen thousands of pounds spent on councillors’ properties and companies.
Normal rules and procedures ranging from purchases made before being authorised, to lone meetings being held by councillors and developers where over a million pounds of valuable land were under discussion, with no records being taken.
Residents have been treated with the utmost contempt, rudeness and with the complete disregard even with the complaints procedures or complying with the recommendations of outside authorities after being investigated.
Bully boys have been utilised to disrupt meetings when the public have tried to hold the councillors to account.
There have been repeated calls that Wakefield should do more, and complaints have been made when they have failed to come to the rescue.
Some people have even called for the abolishment of Hemsworth Town Council through the use of a referendum. Even if a referendum voted for the abolishment of Hemsworth Town Council, it is still up to Wakefield if they want to actually take over the responsibilities of the Town council or not.
Unfortunately none of those are the answer.
Hemsworth Town Council is an independent local authority over which Wakefield Town Council has no authority.
They only collect and pass on the precept for and on behalf of Hemsworth.
The monitoring officer handles some complaints but their powers are extremely limited and as we have seen ineffective against the likes of Kenyon’s cabal.
So just who is a Town or parish council accountable to? Town and Parish councils are the same thing only the name is different.
The Answer is simple:
Local authorities are accountable to their communities for how they spend their money and for ensuring that this spending represents value for money.
Local politicians and officers are supposed operate within local governance frameworks of checks and balances to ensure that decision-making is lawful, informed by objective advice, transparent and consultative.
Please make your vote count in May and please consider only voting for candidates whose credentials you are happy with and to ensure we get that long overdue proper Forensic Audit to bring justice to those who deserve it.
To vote this May, you’ll need to show photo ID. If you don’t have any, you can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate. You’ll need to supply a recent photograph, against a plain background.
Find out how to apply:
https://www.wakefield.gov.uk/elections/Elections-2023-Thursday-4-May?
Hemsworth Town Council and Accountability.
In May you will be in control, mark the date in your calendars’ and let the fight back begin for real…
The community as a duty to undo and put right the last 4 years of destruction,wastage and sheer indulgence spending of our communities money,the community as a duty to bring our community back to the parishioners and bring back to life our prised assets that have been utterly destroyed by the Independent run HTC and it’s our the parishioners VOTES that can and must do this.Votes for the true community councillors who show us they care with a passion about our community and serve it’s parishioners and not themselves.The new voting ID must not put us off voting,and some of our good councillors are holding councillor surgeries like a true community councillor Maxine Hird to help anyone struggling to get their vital VOTING ID done.Our VOTES will make the difference ,our VOTES will make the changes we have to make our VOTES count and get back to being a community to be proud off once again.
Im sick of all this tory bashing. Its not difficult to get yourself sorted to go and vote. Ill be the one in blue this year. make sure you put a cross in all the boxes that say Middleton. there will be more than one and i will be the king of Hemsworth.
One of the most frustrating aspects of HTC is that when a Councillor does wrong, there seems to be no accoutantability what’s so ever ,people with hands in tills (sackable offence from a employer plus reported to police,) consumables used for personal use, dealings with firms unaccompanied no minutes taken, parishioners shut down when asking legimate questions , agenda held in exclusion why Where’s transparency with parishioners which ultimately impact on them. Councillors finding out about important issues from meeting’s (to late horse’s bolted) Person’s given jobs when they are clearly not up to it .