I am told by Martin Brookes that Oakham Town Council have been found to be dysfunctional - well it certainly took long enough. The penny does seem to have finally dropped. I am on my way to the Council Offices to find out if I can get a copy of the findings. However Martin Brookes has published the following paragraph on his blog:
"This case taken together with other assessed cases involving many members of Oakham Town Council indicates an inter-relatonship of cases so serious or complex that they could not be handled locally; investigating the complaints requires substantial amounts of evidence beyond that available from the authority's documents, its members or officers; There is substantial governance dysfunction in the authority."
I'll just repeat that:
"There is substantial governance dysfunction in the authority."
Hooray - it took a long time to come to the right conclusion. Perhaps with the justice of Bloody Sunday finally being brought into some sort of transparent light we are undergoing a sea change in the democratic processes in this country. Yes that was worth M£192 and the 41 complaints that Helen Briggs complained that the Standards Committee had received about Oakham Town Council are at last reaping results. Army dysfunctions and Oakham Parish Council dysfunctions do not come cheap when they happen, but they are worth the expenditure expended to investigate them and bring the sorry failures to light.
I, along with Fiona Arold, Linda Grey and Tor Clarke are attending a meeting at Oakham Town Council tonight. They are interviewing four people to be co-opted to two places on the Town Council. I don't have a cat in hell's chance of being selected, but this finding will make the interview process a great deal easier - at last parish Councillors on the Town Council may be in a position to understand why they should be encouraged to question their own behaviour.
Oddly the meeting will be public at 7.45 whilst they discuss which of the four candidates to choose. Should be fun!
Showing posts with label Council meeting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Council meeting. Show all posts
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Town Council meeting 9 June at 7pm Victoria Hall
There was no need to blog the last meeting - especially since so many turned up to hear about or talk to the Town Council about Tescos.
Comments have found their way about town without my tuppence worth adding to the mess that is the Town Council. At last local residents were able to see the proceedings and see for themselves what happens at these 'events.' I think they did more than I could ever do to undermine themselves and show their total lack of understanding of what and how proceedings should be conducted at that meeting.
If residents would like to attend another meeting, if only for entertainment value, then do come along to the Victoria Hall tonight at 7 pm. As a student of cold war Soviet Russia remarked to me after the last meeting - 'the way this Council is conducted is a copy of what the Soviets used to do. The Town Council, like the Soviets, don't take any notice of standing orders or the law.'
So I feel if I want to live in a democracy it is my duty to observe the 'democratic' process at work. I would be delighted to be joined on the public benches by other residents too.
Comments have found their way about town without my tuppence worth adding to the mess that is the Town Council. At last local residents were able to see the proceedings and see for themselves what happens at these 'events.' I think they did more than I could ever do to undermine themselves and show their total lack of understanding of what and how proceedings should be conducted at that meeting.
If residents would like to attend another meeting, if only for entertainment value, then do come along to the Victoria Hall tonight at 7 pm. As a student of cold war Soviet Russia remarked to me after the last meeting - 'the way this Council is conducted is a copy of what the Soviets used to do. The Town Council, like the Soviets, don't take any notice of standing orders or the law.'
So I feel if I want to live in a democracy it is my duty to observe the 'democratic' process at work. I would be delighted to be joined on the public benches by other residents too.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Cllr Martin Brookes arrested?
Martin Brookes was arrested yesterday. Why?
He'd put three documents in a Council noticeboard outside Victoria Hall. These were:
1. a piece of hate mail offering whomever assaulted Martin £25.00 for doing so.
2. another piece of hate mail saying Martin was 'Unwanted.'
3. Two offensive pictures of bare men's rear ends - in raw graphic detail - one
with a carrot stuck up it. This was published using my identity and purporting
to be me. It was not. I asked the police to furnish me with the IP Address,
they presumably deemed the offensive material sufficiently inoffensive not to
investigate.
We had both complained to the police separately about these documents which we had not published ourselves. I felt the photographs were offensive but there was nothing I could do, bar ask for information of the Council under the Freedom of Information Act to try to get to the bottom of who had published these photographs in my name.
Illogically, having failed to investigate or prosecute the police arrested Martin yesterday for placing the very same information they had refused to act on in a Council noticeboard, saying the material was now offensive.
Go figure.
Martin was taken to Keyham police station, fingerprinted, his DNA taken and bailed to appear on 3 June 2010.
Sorry folks you can't say the material is inoffensive and refuse to investigate who the perpetrators are and then say it is offensive and arrest Martin for putting the very same material in a Council noticeboard.
I think that's called having your cake and eating it.
This is what has been reported online in the Rutland and Stamford Mercury. I sincerely hope that they are able to publish an pology next week. I trust the police will also issue an apology:
Date: 07 May 2010
A MAN has been bailed by police after he was arrested in Oakham on suspicion of causing criminal damage and displaying offensive images in a public place.
Police were notified that the lock on the noticeboard outside the town hall in High Street had been broken and pornographic images had been placed inside yesterday.
A man was arrested at the scene.
Rutland police commander Johnny Monks said: "It's not nice if people use a public noticeboard to display offensive picture and I won't tolerate it.
"We have laws to be preserved."
The man has been bailed pending further inquiries
http://www.stamfordmercury.co.uk/news/Arrest-over-pornographic-images-outside.6280787.jp
FACTS
1. I reported the so called offensive material personally to Johnny Monks - he was not so outraged as to pursue my complaint. It was posted in my name by someone purporting to be me. The so called offensive material was tolerated by Inspector Monks when it was online and sent to Martin Brookes. Why the double standards?
2. So far as I know no criminal damage was caused to the public noticeboard. The man was a local Councillor fed up with the bullying and victimisation he has faced at the hands of Council members. He regularly posts Council notices in the noticeboard in the same way he posted this so called offensive material.
Yes I found the material offensive but the police clearly did not until yesterday. I had delivered the material to the police twice and received no further communication from them nor any assurance that my complaint would be given serious consideration. I then let Council members have a copy so as to give them some evidence of why I was asking for all references to me on Council computers.
This is an outrageous dissemination of half truths on behalf of both the police and their press mouthpiece, whom I suspect is that troublemaker and bored housewife – could it be Cllr J L?
He'd put three documents in a Council noticeboard outside Victoria Hall. These were:
1. a piece of hate mail offering whomever assaulted Martin £25.00 for doing so.
2. another piece of hate mail saying Martin was 'Unwanted.'
3. Two offensive pictures of bare men's rear ends - in raw graphic detail - one
with a carrot stuck up it. This was published using my identity and purporting
to be me. It was not. I asked the police to furnish me with the IP Address,
they presumably deemed the offensive material sufficiently inoffensive not to
investigate.
We had both complained to the police separately about these documents which we had not published ourselves. I felt the photographs were offensive but there was nothing I could do, bar ask for information of the Council under the Freedom of Information Act to try to get to the bottom of who had published these photographs in my name.
Illogically, having failed to investigate or prosecute the police arrested Martin yesterday for placing the very same information they had refused to act on in a Council noticeboard, saying the material was now offensive.
Go figure.
Martin was taken to Keyham police station, fingerprinted, his DNA taken and bailed to appear on 3 June 2010.
Sorry folks you can't say the material is inoffensive and refuse to investigate who the perpetrators are and then say it is offensive and arrest Martin for putting the very same material in a Council noticeboard.
I think that's called having your cake and eating it.
This is what has been reported online in the Rutland and Stamford Mercury. I sincerely hope that they are able to publish an pology next week. I trust the police will also issue an apology:
Date: 07 May 2010
A MAN has been bailed by police after he was arrested in Oakham on suspicion of causing criminal damage and displaying offensive images in a public place.
Police were notified that the lock on the noticeboard outside the town hall in High Street had been broken and pornographic images had been placed inside yesterday.
A man was arrested at the scene.
Rutland police commander Johnny Monks said: "It's not nice if people use a public noticeboard to display offensive picture and I won't tolerate it.
"We have laws to be preserved."
The man has been bailed pending further inquiries
http://www.stamfordmercury.co.uk/news/Arrest-over-pornographic-images-outside.6280787.jp
FACTS
1. I reported the so called offensive material personally to Johnny Monks - he was not so outraged as to pursue my complaint. It was posted in my name by someone purporting to be me. The so called offensive material was tolerated by Inspector Monks when it was online and sent to Martin Brookes. Why the double standards?
2. So far as I know no criminal damage was caused to the public noticeboard. The man was a local Councillor fed up with the bullying and victimisation he has faced at the hands of Council members. He regularly posts Council notices in the noticeboard in the same way he posted this so called offensive material.
Yes I found the material offensive but the police clearly did not until yesterday. I had delivered the material to the police twice and received no further communication from them nor any assurance that my complaint would be given serious consideration. I then let Council members have a copy so as to give them some evidence of why I was asking for all references to me on Council computers.
This is an outrageous dissemination of half truths on behalf of both the police and their press mouthpiece, whom I suspect is that troublemaker and bored housewife – could it be Cllr J L?
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
General election 6th May - but who do we vote for in Oakham and Melton?
Having considered long and hard - wanting Dinky Dunk the matchbox Hunk to be kicked into touch - just so I feel I have an MP to represent me if nothing else. Dinky Dunk doesn't do much representing of those who are less privileged.
We don't have a Job Centre, the bus service to Peterborough returns at 16.40 - so one can't even catch a bus to and from work.
Graham Hudson - A Military smugness surrounds him - came third last time, so my money is on John Morgan the Labour candidate who has shown a degree of independence from the Labour Party.
Oddly for a 'safe' seat we seem to have a 70% turnout. What was it Stalin said? To paraphrase from a faulty memory something along the lines of:
'It is not the people who cast the votes that matter, but those who count the votes.'
Vote early to prevent those who would use your vote to vote often is my advice.
We don't have a Job Centre, the bus service to Peterborough returns at 16.40 - so one can't even catch a bus to and from work.
Graham Hudson - A Military smugness surrounds him - came third last time, so my money is on John Morgan the Labour candidate who has shown a degree of independence from the Labour Party.
Oddly for a 'safe' seat we seem to have a 70% turnout. What was it Stalin said? To paraphrase from a faulty memory something along the lines of:
'It is not the people who cast the votes that matter, but those who count the votes.'
Vote early to prevent those who would use your vote to vote often is my advice.
Tuesday, 4 May 2010
Oakham, Rutland,Town / parish Council meeting
EXTRAORDINARY MEETING
Oakham Parish council are having an extraordinary meeting in the Victoria Hall, on Wednesday 5th May 2010 at 7pm.
There is a motion to exclude the public from items 4 and 5 on the agenda.
The lack of transparency, erroneous need to mark missives as 'Private and Confidential' and the ethos that the Council follows of utter secrecy at all times, whenever possible, makes it imperative that members of the public attend in order to make representations that the business of the meeting should be open to public scrutiny.
Anyone wishing to attend should arrive by 7pm. The 'secret' items on the agenda relate to delegating powers to the very efficient, but nevertheless unelected, Assistant Clerk. The Town Clerk is unable to carry out his duties effectively at the moment due to illness and it appears that the job is causing him a great deal of stress. He appears to believe that when Martin Brookes demands legitimate answers to properly put questions that this amounts to bullying. It is proposed to discuss this state of affairs in camera and the parish council wishes to exclude members of the public from hearing these discussions.
This is not good enough.
Just a little reminder:
Victoria Hall, 7pm, Wednesday 5 May 2010. Be there or be unaware!
Oakham Parish council are having an extraordinary meeting in the Victoria Hall, on Wednesday 5th May 2010 at 7pm.
There is a motion to exclude the public from items 4 and 5 on the agenda.
The lack of transparency, erroneous need to mark missives as 'Private and Confidential' and the ethos that the Council follows of utter secrecy at all times, whenever possible, makes it imperative that members of the public attend in order to make representations that the business of the meeting should be open to public scrutiny.
Anyone wishing to attend should arrive by 7pm. The 'secret' items on the agenda relate to delegating powers to the very efficient, but nevertheless unelected, Assistant Clerk. The Town Clerk is unable to carry out his duties effectively at the moment due to illness and it appears that the job is causing him a great deal of stress. He appears to believe that when Martin Brookes demands legitimate answers to properly put questions that this amounts to bullying. It is proposed to discuss this state of affairs in camera and the parish council wishes to exclude members of the public from hearing these discussions.
This is not good enough.
Just a little reminder:
Victoria Hall, 7pm, Wednesday 5 May 2010. Be there or be unaware!
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