BUSY BUSY BUSY - Really?

Parish Council consider plans for new offices and take advice from London Office

I would like to see if the Citizen of the year award is truly a peoples award or is it just a pat on the back for the great and the good in the community, by the great and good in the community for the great and good in the community.

SO PLEASE SEND AN EMAIL TO THE PARISH CLERK NOMINATING ME FOR THE AWARD

lets see if I win....lol I will not hold my breath....ho ho ho

Ah the winter newsletter arrives on the doorstep, and just for once it does not have a veiled or direct attack on democracy in the form of slagging off anyone who does not agree with them, so sherries all round, mince pies and a happy xmas to all....but to drown their collective sorrows they decided to vote to give themselves a slap up meal at the Swan at Stafford as a consolation prize. I would have thought a donation to "House of Bread" this Christmas would have been more appropriate but that why they put up the precept by 125%.......so what next

Ah Yes



The new website.............. Sorry but I can't see what the difference is? apart from it looking different, it is still not up to date, its still not accountable or transparent or accessible.

Oh it does cost double the amount of the last one, or so I am led to believe

Oh yes and if I am right it is being done by a firm in Exeter Devon, whereas businesses in Staffordshire would have done it at half the cost and probably done it better. This new website was supposed to be an opportunity to improve communications with the public. They even set up a new committee to oversee communications. This site has all the imagination of a "dead donkey" apart I may say for the inclusion of the excellent photos from Dawn Lockett.

The Home Page just a bit of text with links to other parts of the website, the photos are bog standard stock photos and say nothing about the actual council, this page has LESS information on it than the previous site.

Council Information - Nothing new

Meetings and Minutes - Nothing new

Community Information - Nothing New

Members Area !!!!! great something NEW.......sadly only the great and the good have access...

The rest is just a hash of EXACTLY THE SAME INFORMATION that was on the old website. Not much of a launch for the community to see a step up in communication to match the 125% increase in precept this year. Yes they have spend a large wad of cash but for what purpose, NOTHING IS DIFFERENT its a joke, please tell me this is a Joke!

Oh well I am sure they enjoyed their slap up meal

Now we are told that the parish council will be employing directly two part time "lengths men" to do the odd jobs in the villages rather than using local businesses. This to me looks like empire building, instead of tax payers cash going on facilitating improvements in the community it will all be sucked up by wages. Remember earlier this year a 1% increase in wages led to a massive increase in wages cost? this is the last thing we need more increases in the cost of running the council in pensions and benefits and with the way they run things in general the cost of tribunals when things go horribly wrong.

Then we are told that despite a 125% increase last year in the precept they will be increasing the precept this year ANOTHER 1.9%. Now I really dont understand this at all. Next year the council will have access to hundreds of new homes in the villages who all will pay extra money in the pot for the precept at the NEW HIGHER RATE. Other councils in this situation have actually cut their local tax by around 11% to take into account the growth in the villages. Remember 2% on top of the increased 125% is massively more of a cash rise than it would have been without the tax rises this year. That's why they have put it in % terms as it will now be a large lump of cash to increase next year, I will ask them to give out the cash amount for you to see in the new year. Remember this is YOUR cash coming out of YOUR purse and wallet, you have been given no say, no consultation, and no justification has been given.

Fracking - at last its on the agenda just like the hedge at mill lane in 8 years time a formal policy might be in place but only after the whole village is surrounded by wells and the water under Essex bridge is poisoned will they do anything about it. I asked the County Council via our County Councillor Len "Useless" Bloomer, who said there are no "Fracking" sites in Staffordshire. He was right, however there are 3 "deep coalbed methane extraction" sites, one just up the road from us in Stafford at Bramwell.

HS2 - this is a laugh, the HS2 denier in chief Adam Billingsley the vice chair, has had a meeting with HS2....lol anyone can have a meeting with HS2 I have had a dozen or so. This was back in OCTOBER things have moved on!! this figleaf of representation is just that, just to say if anyone asks that they have done something. Nothing of substance was discussed, nothing of substance came from the meeting.


We are constantly told how busy the Parish Council are, lets see shall we, I have been looking through the mins of the meetings for the myriad of committees that sat this year.

1. The allotment committee last sat in January......
2. The Burial Ground Committee last sat in February.....
3. The Leisure and Environment Committee last sat in June.....
4. The Policy Committee last sat in March.....
5. The Young People Committee last sat in June.......
6. The Newsletter Committee last sat in June.......
7. The Planning Committee last sat in November but before that in June.....
8. The full council meets one a month for a couple of hours at the time of publishing this the December final mins have still not been posted 2 weeks after the meeting was held.

Now I may be missing something here, but why then is it that it costs so much to run? and why does it take so long to do stuff???

Many of these committees only sit once a year twice at most

Remember we have 2 clerks one full time and one part time, yet they cant publish a set of mins for a meeting until just days before the next one, what are they doing all day? your guess is as good as mine.

Now I am compiling a list of all the things the Parish Council "Resolved to do" in 2016 and so far have not completed.......I promise you its a long list. I want to keep it ongoing and current to keep and eye on exactly how long it takes to get some basic simple things done. Productivity is a big issue within the Parish Council, this is the fault of the Management of the council not individual councillors. 2017 needs to be the year this is sorted out.

Parish Council Discover HS2 - Unbelievable!!

LOL it seems the parish Council have discovered HS2? who would have thought!

Members of the council were aghast to discover that underneath all the reports on grit bins and pay rises they have found a report which concerns the Parish Council greatly.

It appears the government are planning a new High Speed rail route which will at some cost to local residents come close to the villages. The Parish Council have decided to form a sub committee to look into the matter and to help those who may be affected by the proposal.

I know that the project was announced some 5 years ago now, but it seems that the Parish Council have only just decided to help the local residents get "The best deal" from HS2.

This is completely laughable, and also completely outrageous too. Under the wise council of The "Save the Haywoods" group, during the years of the last Parish Council, they completely ignored the HS2 issue, being told regularly by Cllr Adam Billingsley and Cllr Andy Cooper and others that it would not come near the villages at all. How do I know this, well I sadly had to sit and listen to them tell me that I was a scare monger, that I didn't know what I was talking about. I was told in no uncertain terms to "go away" and to stop going on about it.

The Parish Council did nothing to prevent the Shires development in Great Haywood, opposite Roseacre Nursery, whose homes are likely to be severely blighted, and devalued, not only by the Railway itself but from the 5-8 years of heavy construction.

The Parish Council did nothing to help shape the compensation package

The Parish Council did nothing to help local residents sort out the mess of the emergency compensation scheme. I could go on and on, but it would serve no purpose

This is more than too little too late, its an insult to those residents effected by the route, it is an insult to those residents who had to help fight for support without the Parish Council being by the side of locals suffering just because of the announcement. EVERYTHING THEY ARE DOING NOW IS JUST TOO LATE!

Nothing on the Environmental impact of construction
Nothing on the Disruption to traffic in the area
Nothing on the impact of soil spoil dumps outside the village
Nothing on the local worker camps
Nothing on the construction impact whatever.

As ever we receive a one star service while paying for a 5 star facility.

Not to worry, the Council have paid for a "Facilitator" to run a "Management Think day" to help the council decide what they want to do with all the time they have, and the wads of cash they now have in their coffers. Well that's Ok then.

Actually its isn't, I remember having a similar meeting where the councillors listed all the different things they consider should be on the agenda of a "to do list". lost of time was taken placing all the items on a nice spreadsheet, and then like everything else it just got lost in the quagmire of administration.

What is the answer to this? MORE STORAGE, lets pay for better heaters and more storage, nothing about scanning documents and digitalising the parish into the 21st century, no lets buy more paper storage facilities. I tell you, you could not make it up.

Oh well as long as their priorities are right, sod the community lets have better heaters for us!! 

Oh just to let you know we had out "Annual" visit from County Councillor Len "Useless" Bloomer, that's nice, heres to another £9000 in his pocket for next year!!

Oh yes it took a whole month to write the minutes from the last Full Council meeting, not exactly a "Timely" response to the community, and none of the Agendas were posted on line at all.

Powdered wigs and quill pens all round!!!

What is actually Happening? God Knows!

Thursday 06th October is the date of the Latest Full Parish Council Meeting........

"So what" I hear you say

Whats on the agenda? god knows it could be anything, so why does the Parish Council who have recently raised the cost of running the council by over £6000 still insist on the barest minimum when it comes to communicating with the public, I will never understand.

Now under the Local Government act 1972, the barest minimum to remain legally correct is to post the agenda 3 days prior to the meeting on the Parish Noticeboard.

For those of us who have a diary, that is not exactly helpful to anyone trying to plan their week. A young mum who maybe want to attend may have to arrange child care. A small businessman would have diarise their time to make sure they leave work on time to get things done.

So this means you will have no idea whatever what the dates of future meetings are, unless that is you look at the parish notice boards to find out. However the meeting that you may want to go to may not be on the board. So you will have to go down to the notice board every day until the notice is placed.

Now we are told that a large lump sum of cash is going to be spent on the delivery of a new "Parish Website", well all I can say is that currently minutes of meetings and agendas are routinely not posted for months after a meeting has taken place ensuring that only the clerk and the councillors have any idea of what is going on.

A change in standing orders will be required to establish the following new rules which should become standard practice.

1. Draft Minutes of meetings will be posted within 2 days of the meeting closing
2. Draft agendas for all meetings should also be posted online 3 days prior to the meeting taking place.
3. All meeting notices should be routinely placed on the social media pages for the villages ensuring that over 3000 local people get direct access to the agendas and minutes directly in their email boxes.

I also propose that the limited nature of the Parish noticeboards mean that many of the notices have to be truncated to make room for them all. All the noticeboards should be replaced by much larger boards capable of homing a more detailed set of notices.

The only way the local people have assessing what is being achieved on any subject at the moment is being in the meeting and listening to the section called "Clerks Report". This section outlines what progress has been made on many subjects. However on the minutes of the meeting it merely says "The clerks report was noted" but ABSOLUTLEY NOTHING about what was in it.

It is currently deemed that the report is confidential.....absolute fiddlesticks!!

Many of the "Gold Standard" Parish Councils who pay much less for their services regularly every month publish what progress has been made by the council on various issues. It is just this council and the management who feel that it is not a good idea for local people to know what's going on.

If they really believe the "Save the Haywoods" ideology is dead then they would embrace open accountable transparent working, I'm not holding my breath.

So I am suggesting to the council this month that they consider a "White Paper" system of working. When a new piece of activity is proposed it is put in the form of a white paper, with a clear narrative explaining the reasons why the activity is required, with no jargon, what it will cost, how long the task will take etc. and importantly who is owning the project. This means that there will be a document produced which is titled and everyone will know what is required. As progress is made the document is added to, if the borough council or county council is contacted etc this is evidenced in full. The key thing here is that the documents are published for everyone to see. Then everyone can see progress, everyone can see the latest activity. The file then becomes a working document which is electronic, which does not require a paper file. Access to everyone and the councillors means they can keep abreast of progress as soon as it happens not having to wait for months for the next potential meeting.

This is what the Parish Council could deliver if they wanted to, we will have to wait and see if they do.  

Not on this months agenda

Burial Ground
Results of the Employment meeting for potential new staff
Explanation of how a 1% pay rise results in a 17% cash increase in costs
106 Cash none being spent in the Haywoods
The Legal Case - no update or how much more cash this is costing
5 years too late.....a position on HS2.......probably head up collective arse.

Watch this space

AT LAST - and about time!

Lets give credit where it is due, I have been asking for over 5 years now for the Parish Council to deliver for the community a more open and accountable set of accounts which are not designed to just mean something to the accountant, and the people who produced them.

Well I can now announce that they have taken the very first step in this, the Parish Council have taken my advice and started to produce a set of accounts that is more open and readable to the average person on the street.

However as ever there is still the matter of "projects spend" if you look at these accounts it clearly sets out what has been spent on say the JPF Equipment, something they want you to know about because they are proud of that.

Sadly nowhere does it set out that they have spent over £13,000 on legal fees over the last few years, something they are not so proud about. A lot of the terminology is still "jargon" like "Concurrent Function" It is also a little confusing as to the matter of if all expenditure or if all income sits in brackets. Finally it sets out a massive move of funds from the reserve not just to pay for the JPF equipment but to pay for overheads and wages and maintenance. This cash withdrawal is only possible because of the previous councils ability to save cash.

This is a good start and should be commended, as being immeasurably more open and accountable than previous poor efforts. It has to be said, nobody knows why it has taken over 5 years to this September for this information to be produced, but now it has, it needs refining and opening up more so ordinary non accounting people can understand the "Narrative" of the document and the decisions that the council has made.

Also worth noting the massive increase in projected income from £86K this year to a projected £175K next year. Remember this in the main is a local TAX, everyone in our community is putting their hard earned cash into this pot, you have a right to be consulted on how it is spent, and a right to have an input into what projects it is spent on. The day of the great and the good and the staff having their pet projects delivered with other peoples cash is over.

Wages UP! Latest Update, up by another £6692

Now I can see why they Parish Council has been so reluctant to release the information about the increase in administration costs to the community. In the blog below you will see that in the Annual Accounts of 2015, which are on the Parish Website the cost of wages overall for the Parish Council was

 £38,194

This is now due to be increased in one year with all allied costs included to....

£44,886     an increase of £6692

The letter I received quoted this as an explanation....

"Staffing costs for 2016/17 as agreed in the budget set in December 2015 is £44,8860.00. This figure includes costs for Salaries, PAYE, National Insurance, Pension Fund, Payroll, Training and Seminars. Any variation of this figure will be need to be discussed at the Finance Committee in November and passed to the Full Council for conformation.

The recommendation from NALC/SLCC was to follow the Local Government pay award of 1% increase in salaries in each of the years 2016/17 and 2017/18. The Parish Council accepted this recommendation at its meeting in June 2016."

End Quote.

So I may be wrong but it seems that a 1% increase in pay award, in cash terms results in a 17% to the tax payer. Now I may be wrong here but the facts are plain, the old rate was £38,194, the increase is £6692, which is a 17.5% increase by my reckoning.

The wages cost in 2009 was £18,886, and now it is £44,886, an Annual increase of £26,000 over the period of Austerity.

Now again let me state clearly, I have no problem in principle with good wages for a job. However this increase on the wages cost for the running of the Parish Council, I would expect a commensurate increase in performance and efficiency as well as a significant upgrade in the way the Parish Council communicates with the public. The bare minimum of posting notices on the notice boards is no longer good enough, the smoke and mirrors of administration is no longer acceptable. Our community is paying an extra 125% in local tax, with an extra 500+ new people moving into the community, all paying the local tax, delivered by the poor "Save the Haywoods" campaigns which never saved the Haywoods from anything at all.

I say to everyone in Colwich and the Haywoods, this is your cash, your council, it is time for a change, a change of leadership, a change of style of administration, we should all be demanding open accountable accessible communication. I will set out on this blog over the coming months exactly how this can easily be achieved. We are paying for it, as a community we deserve the best, we should not be settling for the lowest bar possible within the legal framework, we should be not just aiming but achieving the HIGHEST levels of communication with the community the Parish Council serves.

I believe our Parish Council CAN be awarded the GOLD standard for Parish Councils and when and IF I am re-elected at the next elections I will make it my business to ensure that Colwich parish Council becomes a Gold standard council.

Quality Gold Status 

The Quality Gold Award demonstrates that a council is at the forefront of best practice and achieves excellence in governance, community leadership and council development. Quality Gold councils provide leadership for their communities, bring people together, and have excellent business planning processes, ensuring value for money as well as constantly seeking new innovations and opportunities to improve. 






This is the story that just runs and runs, I have now received a reply from the Parish Council regarding my freedom of information request and I can now tell you how much the pay rise will be to the tax payer in the next couple of years..............

Oh if it were only that simple......this next bit is priceless!!!

They are sending the information in the POST!!, the extra cost of a stamp, envelope, paper and the time it has taken to write the letter.

Now that in itself is just designed to frustrate me getting hold of the information quicker, BUT THERE IS MORE!!!

Now I have been banned from sending my requests addressed to MR CLERK, as this person "In the Authority" does not exist!! and failure to send the request to a specific person could result in a delay in any responses to a legal request for information.

You just could not make it up, they are the only people in the office!!

They sit in the office each day, they are the Clerks to the Parish Council, they are as I believe both men, so the preface of MR is entirely right, they are Clerks to the council so using their title is not unusual, especially as I have no idea who will receive the request........it is just priceless, and this is what we are paying for.

The response in full set out below was authorised by the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the Parish Council Andy Cooper and Adam Billingsley, it will be interesting to see the draft agenda which will be issued soon to see what other important issues they have prioritised for this months meeting.

Dear Mr Pearce,

A hard copy of the response sent on 19th August has been sent by post.

For future reference: there is no-one in the Authority known as 'Mr Clerk'. Should you wish to submit future Freedom Of Information, or any other, requests then might I suggest you address these requests to a known member of the Authority's staff i.e. to either my 'Rev Mr Lennon' as the Parish Clerk or to my deputy 'Mr Egan'. Failure to do so might result in a delay in answering your request(s).

Rev Mr Michael Lennon, MILCM
Clerk to Colwich Parish Council
The Parish Centre,
St Mary's Road
Little Haywood
ST18 0TX

01889 882665

clerk@Colwich.staffslc.gov.uk

www.colwich.info

If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify Colwich Parish Council and then delete the e-mail and all attachments immediately. This e-mail and its attachments are confidential and may contain privileged information, if you are not the intended recipient any disclosure, copying, distribution or other use of this e-mail or attachments is strictly prohibited. Whilst all reasonable care has been taken, no guarantee is given that it is free from any virus and Colwich Parish Council accepts no liability or responsibility for such viruses. This e--mail is not intended nor should it be taken to create any legal relations, contractual or otherwise.



Well here we go again, I asked a simple question of the Parish Council who, as set out in the Blog below have already recently raised the cost of wages to the local public purse by a whopping 50% during a recession. They have just voted through a further 2 years of increases to this, I have no idea what this further percentage this is, or how much the total is. So I sent a simple Freedom of Information request to find out so everyone is aware of the extra planned cost. I received an email with an attachment, the attachment would not open. I asked for the information to be re-sent, nothing not an acknowledgement of my request, nothing, and this perfectly sets out what we are paying for, this is what the pay rise is for, for the administration to send another email I have had to ask twice and still no answer. with the 125% increase in local taxes, the over 50% increase in total wages cost with more planned, our community deserves better administration and better open accountable communication. So I am no further in letting you know what they are spending because they are refusing to re-send the information. I have already had to wait over the 20 days for a FOI request, this is YOUR cash they are spending, YOUR money that remains un accounted for, YOUR council refusing to open their accounts to simple local scrutiny, YOUR council that needs to become routinely more open and accountable. IF you are reading this and you are ON THE COUNCIL, then all you have to do is to send a quick email to the clerk and ask them why they are not communicating with the public, why they are ignoring legitimate requests for information. I will post an update as soon as I receive one.......not holding my breath, so I will re-send a formal Freedom of information request, it seems the only way to get the information out of this shady council.

I will over the coming months and years be looking into and revealing facts about how the communities money has been spent over the years. It would be nice if all I had to do was to email the council and ask, but sadly this information has to be asked for as a freedom of information request as much of what happens in the council runs through a filter of smoke and mirrors.

Now there are those who will say that this type of scrutiny is bullying and offensive and that I am picking on the parish council. I say this is democracy in action, the people keeping the executive accountable to the community or constituency they serve. The answer to shutting me up is simple, change the council to be more open accountable visible and transparent, if this is done I will have nothing to chat about with you, will I. So those who attack me for saying these things, I say get behind the closed doors of the council and start changing it, spend your time resolving the issues, rather than supporting the status quo which isn't good enough any more.

Lets look at a simple example, how much it costs to run the council, now we are told it is £93,000 quite a sum really. Lets think for a while.........do we get value for money for that sum?

This cash comes directly from our local community collective wallets

Do you feel that the community has changed in the last 5 years?

Do you think that the burdens on the Parish Council have vastly increased in the last 5 years?

Do you look around you and see the massive added value in the community of spending that £93,000?, do you know what the cash is spent on? do you have any idea how it came to be such a large amount?

If you look on the Parish Website you will see under the section Marked "Other Documents" a long list of documents mostly historical.

If you look at the Annual Report of 2009, you will see that the cost of "wages pensions etc." was £18,886, if you then open the Annual Report for this year 2015 you will see this jump to a massive...


£38,194 that is an ongoing annual increase of £19,308 a 50.5% increase in salary costs. During a recession, and at a time of austerity. All other councils have been forced into cutting services and reducing staffing during this time. 

If you read the recent full council minutes you will see that this cost has just been agreed to be increased again this year and next. I am waiting for confirmation from the council of what exactly the uplift is in cash terms.

Let me also be clear, there is nothing inherently wrong in wages going up, I will leave you to judge if this raise is acceptable, but any business or organisation must be able to point to how that added cost has benefited the community it needs to be seen and visible. This is not a rant, this is just right. When people accuse me of having a chip on my shoulder it is because I keep uncovering facts like these. So lets be clear I am not having ago at the recipients of the wages they are employees of the council they just receive what they are given. Here are the wages cost of a number of other local parish councils, with councils of a comparable size with comparable work to do.

Hixon total cost for this year £9,159
Haughton total costs for this year. £5,082
Eccleshall total costs this year £28,555
Barlaston £15,580

So it is right to ask the question with a £19,308 a Year increase in just 5 years what value add is the community getting for that significant investment of local tax, remember those wages are funded ONLY from us here in the community. Ask yourself want has radically changed in just 5 years in our community that warrants this need for extra expense. This is not an issue for the Clerk he is just doing his job, this is an issue quite clearly and directly for the Management and Organisation of the Parish Council, Directly the Chairman and the Vice Chairman who are directly responsible for the operational management of the council.

I started asking for better efficiency, better up to date communication, better administration, and I was blocked at every turn

So when I am asking the council why are the minutes of the meetings are not on the website, and I get the answer they are in the window come and look, I get more than a little frustrated that for this increase we are receiving a minimum standard of communication from the council.

All entirely within the "Quoted Rules" of "Arnold Baker" but all entirely the minimum that is required by law. To me that shows a contempt for the community and the people who pay for those increases. Our community is not some backwater, yes we have a few of the older generation not on the internet or facebook but in general the community is well connected.

In previous Parish councils the level of communication was much better. The website was always updated promptly, what was going on in the village advertised accordingly, minutes from meetings published within days of the meeting not months.

Am I really asking for too much? asking for the website that WE pay for to be regularly updated, for the minutes of meetings to be set out in clear English, agendas to be published with background notes for those not attending to read. Is it too much for the Clerks report to be published so we can see what has been achieved. Is it really too much to have the meetings recorded so we can all see how decisions are made. Is it too much to ask how tenders are done, who is on the tender process and why. I think not, we are entitled to know what is being done in our name and with our cash.

 Its all about open accountable transparent leadership. The Clerks office will do what the council tells it to, so this is not an issue for the clerks office it is the clear "Choice" of the leadership of the council.

I will over time be scrutinising the accounts and looking at what the spending criteria has been over the last 5 years and making sure that a NEW method of accounting is developed that will allow the public easy access to the accounts in a meaningful way. It is a simple process not complicated at all.

Anyone in business will know that to manage the finances of the business you have a detailed spreadsheet of income and costs. Where regular costs are incurred they are called fixed costs and where spot purchases are required or where cost vary they are called variable costs. Each cost to the business has a named line item with a short explanation at the front to identify it, with a cost code attached. The cost code is the way you allocate various costs to a single project, thus producing a simple end of project cost for all the projects in the year. The cost of every project should be published, and a comprehensive breakdown of expenditure should be published to allow the public to see what their cash is being spent on.

An example, and to be fair I would go much further, can be found on the Hixon website http://hixon.gov.uk/Finance/spreadsheet This set out clearly what has been spent and where.

So in the age of Austerity I have asked the Parish Council as a start to tell me how much cash has been spent on Legal Fees for ANY projects in this council and the last, specifically asking what project the legal fee was for and a breakdown of fees per project, I will publish the results here on this blog. This is a freedom of information request, so I have to wait until mid august for the information to be sent. I hope it will be in a form that will be easy for you to digest.

Remember this is YOUR cash this is the money YOU PAY OUT OF YOUR PURSE's and WALLETS EVERY YEAR.

Paid but nowhere to be seen! USELESS!

Where is Cllr Len Bloomer? he is the very long standing member of the great and the good who tell us how to live and spend all our money raised from local taxes.

Yes he is the one who said

" he is fed up of the public sending him concerned letters about HS2" saying that the County Council is doing nothing.

Having spoken to his bosses, it turned out that like many other councils, they are actually and factually doing nothing......nothing above the very minimum required by law.

The very same Len Bloomer who said that the reason that the County Council has no money for communities, was that there was too many children in care, too many vulnerable people needing help.

He completely forgot to mention the millions spent on business parks, the millions spent on profits for the businesses that have taken over public services they have outsourced. Oh yes and the new Jag for the Chief Executive while slashing bus services in the county.

Cllr Bloomer over the last 5 years from the public purse has been paid £49,371

In the last 2 years, that's 24 months Cllr Bloomer has attended Colwich Parish Council Meetings just twice

On both of those occasions he didn't have anything to say, apart from there is no money and you are not getting anything from the County Council. He could have sent someone else along, sent a report of what he was doing, most months we struggle to get an apology for not attending.

Question? Are we getting anywhere near value for money for the cash the good people of Staffordshire are paying out.

Question? Just what have the County Council done for our community in recent years? well I have to tell you I have looked and over the last 5 years I am really struggling to find ONE THING. Yet this councillor is returned by this community year on year, just because he always has been.

I say that the problem this Cllr is a "Has Been" he definitely is no longer any good for this community.

The local ruling elite are now so used to being elected they are now taking it all for granted, they don't have to turn up for meetings, dont have to do anything in the community, just send a few leaflets around at election time and they just get re-elected and for what? doing absolutely nothing to help this community.

Now for those of you who will say this is just a left wing rant, remember I am not saying this about Cllr Perkins Conservative, who attends regularly  and I am on record of thanking him for the hard work he does. I am not saying this about Jeremy Lefroy MP Conservative who attends all his surgeries and is on record of supporting many community projects not least the recent football pitch issue at Shugborough.

Cllr Len Bloomer has become distant arrogant and completely useless to the community, its time for him to go, he just takes the money and does nothing for us here in the Haywoods. Yet he relies on our votes to get elected.

Its time for a change!

Ye Olde Hedge and other stories

The elders of the Council inspect the hedge

I refer today to the ancient writings in the year of our lord of the manor of Bishton 2008, verily it was set down into the laws passed in the ancient parish of colwych.

Sir Barry of Birt did with great wailing and gnashing of teeth set out to the assembled council of elders the grave matter of the Hedge at mill lane.

The hedge had grown outwards not inwards, and verily it pushed the prams and the pedestrian ancient folk into the path of the carriages and cow herders. It was not good.

The goodly council of elders sent forth a chattle to view the road carnage wrought by this vicious hedge, they looked upon it in horror, and ran all the way back to the safe walls of the Parish Fortress.

It is true said the chattle, the hedge doth jut out in an unseemly manner, (although it is very nicely kept he added, sadly this was stricken from the record, but this account was written in the old tablets of Wolseley for posterity)

The Council of elders sat in courtly session, with grim countenance, and resolved to enforce its will on the owner of the offending hedge, verily they voted to send an army to quash this verdant rebellion in the community.

Elder after elder went to "Tut" at the hedge, while the owners sayeth unto them "Bugger off" I'm not paying for it. Years passed with no resolution to the 8 year war of attrition.

Sat in their fortress the council of elders sent for Sir Len of Bloomer the Prophet of Old Staffs, who on entering the chamber fell flat on his face, "shit and buggeration" did I just trip over a poor person?? no? well theres no money, nor will there be for ever and ever amen.

The council of elders sent for Sir Stuart of Learoyd, but he was too busy in Brockton to make the long journey so in his stead he sent forth the Alan Perkinton of the small Haywood, which is like little Hampton but not as nice, who in the wise way of the great folk, he set down onto the parchment of the lordly council of fafford, "not our job sir"

At last came the cry from the herald of the council, I have a cunning plan, if we write it down that we have resolved to do the said matter everyone will believe it has been, because verily it is written so. Verily one of the wise elders said "you bloody idiot they can still see the hedge!!" "oh yeh" said the herald.

Then the Lords of Miller came to build a big carbuncle on the communities Ring, well next to it actually. Those of the Lordly estate took great umbridge at the ancient hedge obscuring the view of their large pointy carbuncle next to their ring, and they wrested its edges from the road, giving it a mighty trim. The Lords had trimmed their bush very well, it was good.

Sadly the Elders of the Council who had a month off from the war didn't think to ask the Lords of Miller to help them trim their bush in Mill Lane, so there its sits untrimmed to this day.

Here endeth the story of the untrimmed bush, chapter 9 of the book of procrastination, written by Arnold Baker, and interpreted by all un-sundry to no avail.

Lefroy takes up case for the Haywoods

Jeremy Lefroy MP

As you would have read in previous posts we have a need for a new Burial Ground, we have developers in the village, we have cash in the bank we have a plot of land, but we also have a very slow moving Parish Council. Now lets see who tries to stop the progress.

I contacted Jeremy Lefroy on behalf of the community regarding the disgraceful lack of section 106 cash being spent in the community, pointing out the real need for a burial ground.

Hello Mr Lefroy,

I hope you are well, I know you are busy as always, I wondered if you had put any thought to the ongoing problem of the villages in the surrounding area of Stafford seemingly receiving less and less from the Borough Council in the way of services and support. We all know money is tight, but as a Key service village we have had more development in proportion to the size of the community than most villages. I recently sent in a FOI request to Stafford Borough Council to ask how much of the section 106 cash or CIL money had been spent in the Parish of Colwich in the last 5 years. I received a one word answer........none!

How can this be as a community we should have generated somewhere around £500,000 in cash for the area and not one penny has gone on improving the infrastructure of the community. I was more than shocked.

I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter, and specifically what we can do to change that situation. We currently need desperately a burial ground, land is available cash for most of it is in hand. We need more youth services in the village, footpaths upgraded and maintained, hedges trimmed I can always provide an extensive list. It would be good is just a gesture could be arranged to deliver something like the burial ground. The developers are in the community now, they could clear the land and lawn it and build a nice wall around the site, the Parish Council is sitting on a pot of cash as a contribution payment, the diocese of Lichfield have given their blessing. It could be an easy win all round.

I look forward to hearing from you

Kind Regards

Rolfe  

I have received a reply from Jeremy last night  which said this

Dear Mr Pearce,

Thank you very much. I will certainly take this up. It is vital that villages are not overlooked in the matter of key services and infrastructure.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Jeremy Lefroy

Member of Parliament for Stafford constituency

House of Commons, Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA

t    +44 (0) 20 7219 7154   f    +44 (0) 20 7219 4186

e   jeremy.lefroy.mp@parliament.uk   w  jeremylefroymp.co.uk

I have no idea if this will in any way improve matters or speed things up, but I hope this simple bringing together all the parties involved will allow a simple decision to be made on behalf of the villages. If we get nothing else it will be good to finally have a place for those in the community who have lived here all their lives an opportunity to be buried here in the community they loved.

I will keep you informed of any progress, but at least there IS PROGRESS.

Freedom of Information request - SHOCKING!

Where the hell did all that cash go?

This post will not take long, here in the Haywoods, with all the pointless efforts of the "Save the Haywoods Clan" suffered a huge amount of housing development.

I have asked Stafford Borough Council on a freedom of information request to tell me how much of the schedule 106 Cash or CIL cash has been spent in the Parish of Colwich.

Thanks go to our Borough Councillors who have managed to achieve a massive.

ZERO Nothing Ziltch not a bean, not a sausage

I guestimate that we have raised a whopping £500,000 in payments that should be being spent on the community.

we got nothing........

MAX "HEADSTONE ROOM

MAX "HEADSTONE" ROOM

About 8 months ago, a parcel of land came available along the lane in Crossheads, which adjoins the School Playing field. It is for sale at a reasonable price, certainly affordable after the generosity over the years of the community helping CURB raise funds which sit at around £15,000 to date.

CURB as you know have disbanded, and handed over the £15K for the Parish Council to look after until a suitable site has been found. As you all know I have attended many meetings of the Parish Council over the last 7 years and this is a project that has thwarted many attempts as many different sites had over time been considered including this one.

I have in front of me a letter where CURB asks the owner of this small plot of land, which clearly states, that they believe this to be a perfect site. Why, well its because it is in the Parish, actually in the village, local people who will be buried there or have their ashes interred there would be able in the daytime to easily park on the Village Hall carpark, with their permission of course, to attend with flowers etc. Nobody would need to drive up Crossheads lane to park. A small plot of land at the back of the playing field could be allocated to the site, as that too is owned by the Diocese of Lichfield. All of the building companies are in the village at the moment, they could be asked to clear the land and build a good sized brick wall around the plot and turf the site over. In a few months time after they have finished construction this may not be possible.

All the cash is in the Bank NOW, the seller wants to sell NOW, at a very much reduced cost. The Diocese of Lichfield think its a great site and to quote "this is the best opportunity I have seen in the last 10 years, it could serve our purposes and that of the community for the next few decades."

Planning for the Burial Ground is in the Neighbourhood plan soon to be ratified by a local referendum on the 15th September 2016.

All the ducks are in a row.............but then what do you suppose happened........yes you guessed it, the Parish Council. On the Parish Website you will see that the Parish Council had a meeting about the Burial ground..........IN FEBRUARY. The minutes have not been ratified and it is now August, soon to be September. Until the minutes have been ratified no work can be done on developing the idea, lol more importantly no work has been done on the idea, in fact the seller has not even once been contacted. So it will be a full 8 months since the idea was first put to the council, and when I ask them what they are doing about this important facility for the community this was the reply I received.

Blah Blah Blah

"You can be assured that you, along with other residents, will be advised on any further substantive developments in this matter as and when they arise."

As and when they arise!!!! the cash is in the Bank, everyone is ready to go, after more than a decade of looking and after salaries have increased to £38,000 an increase of 50%, its still being looked at!!, after 8 months and over a decade!!

I can understand if the Diocese of Lichfield were the blockers but they no longer are, I can understand if the price for the land was a blocker as it was before, but it isn't now.

This is just down to local politicking. I was the one to contact the seller and persuade them to drop the price, I was the one to contact the Diocese of Lichfield and gain their agreement. It was because it was not the idea of the great and the good of the Parish Council this golden opportunity will be missed. I am not writing this to get credit, I could not give a monkeys nuts if the Chairman of the Parish Council decides to call the site the "Andy Cooper Memorial burial ground" with a big brass plaque and a life size photo on the entrance, says its all his idea and has me sign a legal agreement never to speak of it again, as long as the opportunity is not lost.

It was because I was told it could not be achieved because of the blockers, that I got off my ample backside and picked up the phone to sort it out, and that's what I did.

Our community may lose a golden opportunity to provide additional burial space in the community, through negligence incompetence pride politicking you call it what you want.

I spoke to the seller today, they have other offers they are now considering, as a community we really have to ask if we lose this opportunity which is available now, just  to continue considering options that have not come to fruition in over 10 years of trying, then it will be a travesty for the villages.

I say stop faffing about and get on with sorting this opportunity out, the problem now is the council everyone else think this site is the one to go with. It could be in place by the end of this year if they get a move on.......I will hold my breath......or maybe not....

Legal Case?? What legal Case?

How many of you are aware that the Parish Council is using tax payers cash on an ongoing legal case?

They were discussing it at a special meeting of the FULL council on the 11th July 2016

This is what it said on the Agenda for that meeting......

RESOLVED to suspend Standing Order 1c and to exclude members of the public and press due to discussing Council’s position on legal proceedings.

THE LETTER RECEIVED FROM FREEMAN JONES SOLICITORS COVERING ONE FROM MARK REDLER & CO SOLICITORS.175/16

Now I completely understand that the actual legal position that the council is going to discuss should for obvious reasons remain confidential.

But hang on..... Why are they being so cagey over what the action is covering?

What is wrong with putting on the agenda something like this:


In the matter of (for Example) The Parish Council is undertaking to use legal proceedings against ABC person or Company in the matter of XYZ. The Parish Council has reached an important juncture in the legal proceedings or discussions and need to discuss a formal position on a letter received from Freeman Jones Solicitors. etc etc

There is no need to disclose the decision that is fine, but just quoting 175/16 and being specifically obtuse regarding the public is actively designed to make sure the public in general remain unaware of what is going on. This in my opinion shows a high level of contempt for the community and their ability to scrutinise what is going on.

I am sure that this is all completely legal and above board, and reaches the giddy heights of minimum disclosure statutes set out in Arnold Baker, of which I have a copy and have read it cover to cover.

Nothing in this weighty tome says you cannot speak clearly in easy to understand Language accessible to everyone in modern day Britain, the workings of this lowest of tiers of government.

SO HERE IS THE QUESTION, WHAT IS THE LEGAL CASE BEING CONSIDERED?, HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN GOING ON FOR...........AND MORE IMPORTANTLY HOW MUCH IS THIS GOING TO COST.

Just to remind everyone, I currently have on your behalf, a Freedom of Information request in with the council asking specifically how much cash they have spent in the last 5 years on legal projects, defined by project and total cost. As soon as I have the list of cases and their costs I will publish them for your information.

Not just Moaning but Solutions too!!

It would not be right to just moan about how another group of people do their job without putting on record a set of solutions to improving the work of the Parish Council and they way it works.

Over the coming months this is what I would pledge to place firmly on the table of the Parish Council to improve the service.

Parish Council Blog

It takes just a few moments of reading the minutes of the meetings to see that a majority of discussion items are completely unintelligible, this is what I mean by smoke and mirrors. The short hand references the jargon and inter minute referencing, it all becomes completely impenetrable unless you are the ones writing it. Yet the minutes of the meetings and the Agenda are published, so why the need for all the smoke and mirrors. I believe its designed to discourage the public from getting involved.

I also believe that lack of scrutiny, means less work to do, involve the public, get more to do, so the advantage to the council is we get to do what we want and anything else just gets kicked into the long grass.

A Blog would remove this barrier, take the agenda for meetings, at the moment the agenda is full of cryptic one or two line items. On a blog you could write a narrative of what the issue is, some background for the reader to understand. A blog would enable you to do a key word search to look at the last time a particular matter had been brought up and what was discussed and what was decided. Now this is the clever bit, if you used a cloud database you could link all the specific documents to that particular blog, letters sent, notes of conversation had videos photographs, in fact anything at all. So instead of a one line item you have a bank of modern data for people to see....without having to ask for it in a Freedom of information request.

You see if you don't know it has happened you don't know to ask to see it.....

I will be putting more detail on the proposed "Parish Council Blog" in later posts, remember this is your council you can vote for change you can vote for improvement, its time to stop having democracy done to you and time for you to start saying what you want democracy to look like.

This is YOUR CASH, directly from YOUR PURSE and WALLET directly into the Parish Council Coffers. If you want change then vote for it. If you have any suggestions for improvement email me at the following address haywoodslocalvoice@gmail.com or leave a message here on the Blog. 

Councillors doing good for the community

It would not be right not to highlight some of the many good things individual councillors do on a daily basis to make the village a better place to live.

Victoria Jenkinson has made a good impact since joining the council, her work to support and help the youth in the community is admirable and should be supported by everyone. Her support of the Cricket Ground issue shows an ability to get stuck into the meaty issues of the community where the youth is concerned.

Barry Birt where would we all be without this gentleman and his good lady wife. If anyone was wondering how the litter at the JPF was getting picked up you will find it was Barry and other village volunteers picking up the litter and emptying the bins sometimes three times a day. He is involved with a number of other community associations as well as the BKV and Twinning, and helps others deliver pharmaceutical support to many in our community who cannot get to the chemist or doctors.

Anne Clendon and Amyas Stafford Northcote long standing and ever present in the community supporting every community and county committee and the BKV representing the community for years.

Alan Dohren and his Stirling work on behalf of the Memorial Hall, which has come on in leaps and bounds as it is under new management, especially the craft fairs and the local cinema. His work on the sports and social club is also worthy of note

Stephen Payne his work on supporting the local environment watching with care the decisions relating to Cannock chase, is already making a difference to how the village is involved in key decision making.

So for all those who just believe that I have a gripe with the "Parish Council" I can clearly set out that when the Parish Council are doing a good job I always make sure that I praise it and commend their work. By making my observations I hope to show that I recognise that some individuals on the council are doing a Stirling job and they deserve our thanks and our gratitude for the efforts they put in.

Parish Council have a very short memory

The leadership and administration have a very short memory don't they

In this weeks Parish Newsletter you will see "Once Again" in the so called "Chairmans Report" a reference to members of the public "A Minority" criticising the Parish Council on Facebook.

One of those "Minority" will be me, Hands up and I am glad that somebody is prepared to put their head above the parapet and hold these people to account.

HOWEVER the new Chairman and the Vice Chairman Andy Cooper and Adam Billingsley were recently members of the "Save the Haywoods", group who ran the council for 4 years under the leadership of Paul Gilbert.

Now lets go down memory lane...........

Who started all this attacking members of the public, councillors, planning committee, Severn Trent, land owners, campaigners, in fact anyone who did not agree with their views?

Yes Correct it was Andy Cooper and Adam Billingsley, for over a year before they were elected leaflet after leaflet was produced slagging of and naming as "Corrupt" the then Parish Council, ALL of them and the Parish Clerk. They were scathing of individuals, their decisions, their policies and they named and shamed in their own right every single person or organisation they felt would help them get elected.

Who were the people who when in office continued the process of attacking anyone who did not agree with them, now using public money to do it through the newsletter?

Yes it was Adam Billingsley and Andy Cooper, Newsletter after Newsletter was published and on virtually every occasion they were attacking individuals, businesses, councillors, calling them liars, cheats corrupt, naming them and shaming them. I know because I was the subject of this on many occasions.

It is completely COMICAL and FARCICAL therefore when it was Andy Cooper and Adam Billingsley that have spent the last 5 years doing this on a regular basis to everyone else, for them to start complaining about a couple of people doing it back to them.

Then there is the clerk, he is the "Proper Officer" and is tasked to stop these things from happening, he did nothing to stop the publications there is nothing on record where he objected to any one of the newsletters going out. This despite many of the other councillors and me asking him to do so. It is worth noting that the current clerk was only appointed when the previous incumbent was hounded out of office.

So in essence the Parish Council Voted all of these attacks through in the chamber, the Clerk sealed it with his approval/disapproval not noted and these attacks of liars cheats corruptions were published on a regular basis.

But no it went further......

These attacks would be repeated in the chamber and general "slaggings off" of councils, councillors, businesses, individuals and members of the community were placed into posterity in the minutes of the meetings.

If anyone doubts what I say then just re read the old parish Newsletters, and minutes of the meetings its all there in Black and White.

SO I WILL TAKE NO LECTURES FROM THOSE IN THE COUNCIL WHO HAVE FOR YEARS USING PUBLIC MONEY SLAGGED OFF EVERYONE IN THE COUNTY IN WAYS WHICH ARE FAR WORSE THAN ANYTHING I HAVE EVER SAID.

THESE PEOPLE ARE NOT VICTIMS, its is these people that have victimised other councillors, members of the community, other councils, systematically, for political advantage. Suddenly claiming they are the victim of "bullying" is just a lot short of "unbelievable!!!!"

In fact you can be assured that pointing out the inadequacies of the current council, a council that costs at the moment £93,000 to run, 93K of cash provided ONLY BY THE PEOPLE LIVING IN THE PARISH is small in comparison to the hate filled vilifications and unfounded accusations of Andy Cooper and Adam Billingsley. If you believe that everything has changed just remember this, until the very last day of the previous council both Adam Billingsley and Andy Cooper were voting for these things to happen EVERY MONTH and that is a matter of RECORD gentlemen.RE READ THE NEWSLETTERS AND LEAFLETS then remember the truth, not the spin of these two people.

When is open accountable comment of a public body wrong

I will admit that I am a forthright campaigner and that I have strong opinions. Many of you in our community will disagree with my thoughts and observations and the way I put them across. However I believe in democracy and that the right of freedom of speech is a pillar of that democracy. I also believe that the executive from National Government to Parish Councils should be accountable to EVERYONE in the community not just from people they like to have tea and cakes with but from those who do not agree with their actions and policies.

QUESTION is it wrong to point out that the Parish Council is underperforming? yes or no?

QUESTION if it is pointed out, and the underperformance continues, is it wrong to point it out yet again? yes or no?

QUESTION if the Parish Council over a long period of time still do not get their act together to the point of it becoming embarrassing, is it the fault of the person pointing it out, or the management and administration of the Council?

It seems that the Parish Council feels that I am bullying them into getting their act together, they "REFUSE" to answer my comments, despite me being a member of the public like everyone else. It makes me laugh, because all the effort they go to, to  actively ignore me takes three times the effort of quickly and without fuss putting things right.

I will give you a couple of examples, we have a Parish Council Website, funded by the community, yet the Parish Council believe that the only place they have to advertise what they are up to legally is in their window and on the parish noticeboards. When I point this out to the council I am accused of ranting and being unreasonable and not understanding the rules. I am told that statutes state that this is the legal requirement, what they always fail to say is that this is the minimum standard.

Ah the rules, lets get this out of the way shall we, you will not know the tome made up by "Arnold Baker" often cited as the bible of local government. Yes it has lots of rules statutes and regulations in it but many of these are advisory and a "MINIMUM STANDARD" not designed to be used as a lowest denominator for service. Nothing in the tome says everything cannot be posted online, sent by email to everyone, added to a blog, all these are seen as best practice in a modern community but the Parish Council constantly vote down any attempts to modernise communications.

The question is WHY? what does the Parish Council have to gain from the public not knowing what they are doing?

I will continue to offer controversial views and opinions via this new forum, I encourage open and honest debate and hope that those easily offended will not come along those interested in democracy and debate will tell me how wrong I am, or right if you feel that is appropriate