Mon. Dec 2nd, 2024

At the extraordinary meeting held on Thursday the 09 March 2023, Councillor Ian McGinnies made the following statement, concerning allegations that had been made on a social media site and the alleged “theft of food” from the warm bank:

“My statement as seen on zoom.

I would like to set out my statement in print to allow anyone who wishes to share it.

It won’t be word for word from the zoom recording as it was recited from memory on the night so please bear with me.

I refer to a post on a Fake Facebook Profile on 18th February which followed an incident the day before on the 17th. It reads thus

‘Has anyone else noticed staff and Councillors taking food home, what a great idea warm space was, at least we know whos getting the most out of it🙈🚫🐖🧐🤔’

As some are aware we hold a Warm Space every Monday but on this particular occasion there was an extra one on Friday 17th as it was school half term. If there is any food left over, anyone if free to take leftovers home. On this occasion I personally took some home! I am guilty as charged! However was I there as a Councillor or a 65yr old parishioner, you decide?

The food is the trivial part.

My second & main point is more serious!

On the day in question there were only 2 people present in the building, me & one member of staff. There were no vehicles in the car park.

THE ONLY WAY THIS COULD HAVE BEEN OBSERVED IS VIA CCTV SURVEILLANCE!

Someone has accessed HTC’s CCTV and either posted as the person on the false profile or has passed the information to a 3rd party to post.

To use such CCTV in this way is ILLEGAL SPYING. It is unlawful.

Further to the above statement, it is being investigated and answers will be forthcoming.

Please feel free to contact me but I can’t promise to give answers straight away as due process has to be observed.”

Councillor McGinnies went onto explain that the IP address of the post had already been narrowed down to a particular area of Hemsworth and investigations were ongoing.

Councillor Maxine Hird also explained that the same “fake profile” had made allegations against her with regards to the Sandygate football complex.

Maxine asked the Town Clerk if she had made any complaints.

Alan draper confirmed she had made no complaints to him.

Ferret just got to thinking, whose cunning plan was it to turn the footballers against Labour?

That’s right Jim Kenyon’s.

It would also appear that Councillor McGinnies has now been added to the list of which the Kenyon cabal will try and discredit at every turn as we move forward towards the elections in May 2023.

In addition, Ferret has IP addresses from fake profiles who have tried to submit posts to the www.hemsworthferret.co.uk website, including ones from a certain proven liar, proven bankrupt, former Chair Jim Kenyon who used his own mobile phone!

The IP addresses discussed by Councillor McGinnies relate to a general area of Hemsworth where a select few live and also drink in one particular Public House.

Who could that possibly be?

Ferret understands that one has a crisp related name and a record of abusive behaviour and the other has not so clean “armour” and a false Knighthood.

Ferret is sure readers will be able to deduce who it is from the evidence provided.

What is concerning to both Councillor McGinnies and Ferret is the ILLEGAL USE OF THE CCTV.

The CCTV system is in place to protect members of the public, not for them to be spied upon.

Ferret believes the following people have direct access to the CCTV camera feeds:

  • Alan Draper (Town Clerk)
  • Samantha Knowles (Head of Security)
  • Your Choice Fire and Security

It shouldn’t be too difficult to see from the access logs exactly who logged into the system on the dates specified…


Councillor McGinnies statement starts at 10:00 in the following video:


By Ferret

7 thought on “The Extraordinary Independent Hemsworth Town Council meeting 09/03/202 – Councillor Ian McGinnies and his Statement…”
  1. Anyone Spot a pattern here.
    We have breaches in confidentially.
    Breaches in GDPR.
    Someone removing published accounts from the system without any explanation given.
    Someone taking public money out of petty cash without then providing a receipt.
    Someone viewing cctv footage and then either using or passing onto a third party.
    Who’s supposed to be policing all of the above and making sure all necessary procedures are followed & adhered to !!!

  2. Alan Draper is the one responsible on the day to day basis once again but the town council are responsible for overseeing him. I expect it will be just another “human error” as councillor Middleton said trying to defend the indefensible about him for some inexplicable reason. Inexplicable to him maybe but not us.

  3. This proves just how low the cabal and very close associates will sink to,this proves just how worried they must be about what will be coming in May .To use the equipment CCTV that is installed to protect the parishioners in public buildings like the HCC as in fact been used to spy and violate .
    This is a total disgrace and probably is not the first time that a certain councillor and his cabal associates have illegally edited accessed and removed some vital CCTV evidence ,an incident that occurred in the community centre on 12/5/22 involving members of the public the said CCTV appears to have had vital evidence removed I wonder who could have done that or who was present who as access,well the Town Clerk denies it was him and the Town Clerk knows all about which councillors Breeched Confidentiality and it would appear that sadly the parishioners have no protection from the CCTV it’s used only for spying on the public and even councillors in what is suppose to be a safe environment.
    This cannot and must not go uninvestigated and the culprits brought to task and we as a community must say a huge THANKYOU to Councillor Ian Mcginnies for his brilliant statement and showing he his a true community councillor .
    Please can you post on FB Thankyou.

  4. In the case of food left over, it makes perfect sense to me for that food to be taken home and eaten rather than being wasted. Councillor McGinnies is a resident of Hemsworth and is as entitled as anyone else from Hemsworth, Kinsley or Fitzwilliam to attend the warm space event and eat the food provided. I have personally witnessed food being taken to the Halfords tyre garage for the employees. Is that wrong, not in my eyes. The food was left after the event ended and would have been thrown away so it makes perfect sense to me to give it to anyone who wants it instead of wasting it. I pray that the councillors who care about the members of the community stand together against this rotten to the core group of self serving independent councillors. I hope that the community will stand together at the next election and have them removed from the council. There can then be a proper investigation which I hope will end with the rotten councillors and anyone else involved in wrongdoing spending time in one of his Majesty’s warm spaces.

  5. Yes Cathy there is a pattern, when its investigated it will reveal a picture !
    Without a shadow of doubt the cctv as been used to discredit a councillor but the worrying thing here is what else as it been used for, please look at HTC cctv policy .
    The paragraphs under introduction

    Code of practice
    States who is responsible for the day to day operations the town clerk and supported by the head of security
    Any breech has to be investigated by the town clerk and reported to council
    Please read in full, quite short.
    Most cctv systems have a admin and password to access the system HTC will be no different so basically only one or two people will have access to be able to look at recorded images (should be straightforward to identify persons )but if images are on a open screen then anybody can view them only though in real-time, but would have thought the dvr would be in a secure room or should be (worth asking the question )
    Again shows how HTC policies are blatantly been ignored by individuals/groups with no consequences to people been found lacking
    Perhaps councillor Middleton would like to explain this one to us .
    But as policy states the town clerk is the responsible person

  6. Totally agree Anonymous,there should be a full investigation into who as keys,password access and the Town Clerk is first in line and who as full access to the CCTV system and all security.The illegal use cannot go uninvestigated it is far too serious.
    The good councillors must now show the community that action will be taken.

  7. Julie , as have stated there is a clear breech here and it’s upto the town clerk to investigate it and put names forward to the council ,no ifs no buts, can’t say its a security issue can he obviously has no control or does he know? and hoping it will blow over, but don’t think that’s going to happen.

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