This is the final full Town Council meeting prior to the elections which are to be held on 4 May 2023.
Ferret has noticed some interesting and long awaited items on the agenda:
Item 10: Wanneville Allotments.
To consider bringing the main gate at the allotments forward to its former position.
This is the gate that Alan Draper – Clerk, suddenly realised was in the wrong position and he made an “operational decision” to move it to its proper place.
Well that was his story anyway, a story which had absolutely no truth in it whatsoever.
The gate and perimeter fencing had been in that position for over 25 years, so it was a stretch of the imagination to suddenly discover it was wrongly sited.
Then a further excuse was made: It was moved to create additional parking for the school immediately across the roadway!
Unfortunately the school had not asked for the car park and as we all probably know, it is policy to deter cars from parking outside of schools due to pupil safety concerns.
It has also been revealed that Alan Draper had actually bought and had had sight of the actual land deeds and site plans from the Land Registry that proved the gates and fence had been in the proper place all along.
Once again, another lie that he has been caught out with.
So why were these gates and perimeter fencing re-sited?
The re-siting of these gates and fencing would have and indeed has created full highway access to the land at the rear, at the end of the road, therefore removing any “ransom” value from the Town Council land if ownership of the land is given away.
The ransom value can be up to 30% of the redevelopment value of the land to be developed.
Even smaller areas of land have held significant development value.
This potential value belongs to this community and not to anyone else.
Another one of those “pesky coincidences” that plague Hemsworth Town Council, was that Jim Kenyon had held lone meetings with Land developers wanting to build on adjacent sites.
No councillors are allowed to or should conduct such meetings alone.
Ferret believes the sooner these gates are returned back to their original position the better and asks all councillors to support Councillor Maxine Hird to protect what rightfully belongs to this community and no-one else.
Item15: Forensic Audit 2019.
To consider having a forensic audit of the council’s expenditure in 2019.
Ferret understands that this course of action results from the statement made by Councillor Donna Moran, at a previous meeting.
Following diligent work over a number of months, Councillors Moran and Hird believe they have uncovered “irregularities” in the accounts of Independent Hemsworth Town Council from May 2019 onwards.
Ferret hopes that the majority of Councillors will support this course of action, which will, initially at least, restrict the investigation to a short period of time.
This will reduce the costs of the forensic audit, by targeting specific transactions which Councillors Moran and Hird have major concerns over.
This community will no doubt be watching with “eyes wide open” at “vote time” on this issue.
Ferret thanks Donna and Maxine for the amount of hard work they have put in for it to even reach this stage, particularly with obstacles which have been put in their way.
Item 16: Special Motion
Internal Auditor
Pursuant to standing orders 9- to consider a special motion received from Cllrs. Dodson, Hardacre, Hird, McGinnies, Middleton, Moran, Morton, A Westmorland and G Westmorland.
First and foremost, Ferret would like readers to look at the names of the Councillors who have put forward this motion.
NINE councillors out of the 15 elected (or not in Jim Kenyon’s case) members of Independent Hemsworth Town Council.
Ferret believes that the intention is to remove the Internal Auditor from his position at Hemsworth Town Council.
The appointment of this auditor has been controversial from day one.
The person concerned was formerly employed by Jean and Gordon Eccles to oversee their business accounts and they highly recommended him to the council.
This appointment conflicts with the standards that are expected from anyone in public office. Although the Eccles’ declared an interest, all appointments such as this should not be recommended by councillors, as appointments not only should be above any suspicion, they should also be free from any perceived concerns.
An auditor in the previous employment by councillors J and G Eccles is bound to create concerns to the ordinary man or woman on the street.
The position should be beyond reproach.
Given the number of councillors who have supported this motion, if they all attend the meeting we should see a new appointment being made, which is fully “open and transparent”.
More to follow on the agenda tomorrow…
Important Dates:
Publication Notice Of Election: 23 March 2023
Publication of Candidates: 5 April 2023
Polling Day: 4 May 2023
45 DAYS UNTIL POLLING DAY…
Let’s hope all the councillors do turn up, they should but that doesn’t mean that they will.
The community now need to hear and see all the good councillors come together and finally use their Votes and put a stop to any wrong doings between now and May.The public once again will be exempt from hearing and seeing which councillors actually do Vote to stop any misdoings as once again the HTC show no Transparency and put what the community should be apart of in Exclusion.Time now for change and the public will be watching,listening and will see who are the true community councillors and mostly who are not.May approaching and the parishioners will get our say on who runs our HTC and who will be in charge of our precept money and hopefully our VOTES will put an end to 4 disastrous years of a self serve Independent HTC.
Please can you post on FB Thankyou.