Response to comments.

Response to comments.

There has been a couple of comments on my previous post, thank you for reading and taking the time to post those comments. The short answer to the second comment is “no” I have no wish or intention to become involved with the Play Park. That doesn’t mean I totally disagree with it, it may surprise you to learn that I actually agree there is a need for a Play Park, I also agree that a good position for a Play Park is the currently proposed site.

My problem is with the vision, approach and methodology of achieving it, to me it would appear to be ad-hoc and self-defeating and that doesn’t help the project, people involved with it or the intended end users, children. At this point I believe the project is in dire need of a total rethink and evaluation of just where it is today and the possible options for carrying it forward to a successful conclusion, neither I nor anyone else can know what those options are until the re-evaluation process is complete but I do believe that process must start as soon as possible to avoid the potential liabilities that I believe are currently waiting in the wings. As I have said in my recent post, I really do hope things can be turned around because that’s in the best interests of all concerned.

Carol Osgerby has also commented on “Preston Village Debate” which I would like to respond to. I have never assumed that all elected to public posts or, all who sit on charitable committees are devious or dishonest, Quite the opposite in fact, I have as far as I’m aware never included all such people as that would be ridiculous indeed, I have always limited my comments to Preston Parish Council and the Charities operated in their name. In that regard I have never included all who are elected to that body or Charities, I have gone to great pains to clarify my grave concerns relating to just a few members (4 out of the 13) of those bodies, the same people in each case I might add. I have also stated very clearly what those concerns are and my reasons for them. Therefore your comment is wholly incorrect.

If you wish to disagree with my views you are entitled to do so but please deal with the specific issues instead of ignoring them (you have never commented on any issue, you have always commented on me as a person, someone you have never met) and apparently pretending the issues I raise don’t exist! I would be very pleased to engage with you in discussion on any issue I have raised in any public forum.

I’m afraid it’s you who are making assumptions by “assuming” that I wish to “hold a public body to account”, I have no such desire, an individual is highly unlikely to succeed in that endeavour, you should realise that, unless they are prepared to fund a legal process and devote a very great deal of their time and energy doing so, at this point I am not prepared to do either therefore your assumption is again misplaced. My aim is to speak my mind as I honestly see things and make other people aware of how our council operates, by all means disagree with me I would welcome that and I would enjoy the resulting discussion.

If you or anybody else can convince me that I’m wrong I will retract any “incorrect statements” and apologise fully and unreservedly on any public forum of your choice, please take up the invitation.

Please, please contain yourself, again your assuming I am so unwise, innocent and naive that I have no understanding of human frailties, goodwill or fundraising. I as a person am as susceptible to human frailties as anyone else and I am very far from perfect, as we all are in our different ways, so I am able to understand the characteristics you raise and I accept them in other people as much as I must accept my own failings. Again, can I ask that you address the issues instead of attacking me as a person, collect all the information on the Play Park to-date and then talk to me if you wish?

You say in your post that “a little more generosity of spirit would be welcome, along with less innuendo and insinuation”, with regard to the Play Park I openly questioned the wisdom of a sitting Parish Councillor using her office along with her position on the Playing Fields Charity to progress a private enterprise of raising funds for a Play Park.

That was and remains a valid and justifiable enquiry for any precept paying resident to make. No one, least of all I was accusing anyone of anything with regard to the Play Park, monies or honesty, I simply questioned their wisdom on that particular subject, 6 months later it would appear I was quite right to do so! If my concern had been taken notice of and the Play Park project re-assessed it may not have resulted in what we have to-day, it may have transpired that if the charity and Parish Council office was to be used it should have been used wholeheartedly with their full involvement and control, just maybe we may have had a Play Park up and running today?

With regard to the “generosity of spirit” you say I should adopt, after more than 3 years of trying to resolve any issues I (and others) may have with the Parish Council they have never been of such a generous spirit as to discuss any issue with either myself or others, one such issue could have been put to rest with a simple assurance from the council that I would not again be attacked personally in front of a public gallery by a councillor. The council was informed by me that I would accept such a statement to that effect and the matter would be closed, that was not to be, my interpretation is that it would probably be open season on me as an individual and I may be attacked by any councillor so minded during any meeting I dared to attend, with impunity. Needless to say I attended all meetings from that point for some time and continue to attend meetings to this day.

When challenged 3 currently sitting councillors told what can only be described as a pack of lies to an official national body conjured up between themselves to avoid the aggressor having to face the need to apologise, that’s democracy? just? kind spirited? This is only one of the issues you should be commenting on instead of attacking me as a person.

I have repeatedly requested and invited the councillors in question to help me have the matter investigated to establish the facts of the incident and possibly prove themselves to be honest and upstanding members of our community after all. Each and every time I have met with total silence and their most zealous opposition to any investigation that as far as I’m concerned seals their guilt.

I was raised to treat people as I would like them to treat me, I have always lived by that but I was also raised to treat others as they treat me, I do not feel that I have wandered from that path.

Ray Duffill commented on Carol’s post which I would like to express my agreement with, most council’s I’m sure are collective body’s that try their very best for an area and I certainly agree that it’s a good thing we have such people willing to work voluntary on our behalf. However, unlike Ray I have not attended council meetings outside of Preston so I must contain my views within Preston, our Parish Council and Charities.

Let us look at the good works councillors have achieved trying their “very best” for the residents of their area from mid 1990’s to 2011. I have it in writing from a previous Council Chairman that after approximately 15 years in control Preston Parish Council had planted some bulbs in grass verges along with a few trees and acquired land as an amenity area on Staithes Road.

It really did amount to a few bulbs and a couple of trees, I found it difficult to believe a council could boast about such a level of achievement after 15 years in office!! As for the land the council acquired as an amenity area it consisted of a postage stamp sized area where the public toilets used to stand, after demolition that land was given to the Parish Council who grassed over it.

We have 13 councillors who sit for about 2 hours each month for 11 months of the year, that’s 286 hours each year amounting to 4290 hours over their time in office. This is the equivalent of a person working full time for 2 whole years and the total achievement is a few bulbs, a couple of trees and they also managed to grass a postage stamp, not impressive by any standards. Furthermore to reach that level of achievement they spend about £20,000 of our money achieving nothing each year.

You may feel I’m been less generous than I ought to be, well, I haven’t included the time of an executive officer which amounts to a further 16 full time weeks a year or an handyman.

So what were councillors doing during those years, very little it would appear, but they did manage to find time to progress their own grand schemes for Preston as their long-standing future legacy for the village! One such scheme was the demolition of the existing Community Hall and the building of a grand new Community Hall in its place that one councillor announced would be “the best in Yorkshire” in a rousing ‘Churchillian’ speech, that statement was made by a councillor and trustee during the Community Hall Charity Meeting in early 2011. At the time others and I were opposing the demolition of the Community Hall, we felt it could be refurbished and saved to serve our community without getting the village into many hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of debt, which we would have been paying off for at least 2 to 3 generation into the future. All of what I’m saying here is in writing in 2010 by email so we are able to confirm our version of accounts.

The cost of doing all of this to us the taxpayers was 10’s of thousands of pounds and then it was all simply abandoned without a conscience being stirred, needless to say councillors refuse to discuss this but it is all recorded in council accounts and can therefore be verified.

It also must be said that spending all of our money on such schemes meant nothing to those councillors what so ever! So how can I say that? Well they spent about £10,000 on a drawing and planning permission alone in 2007 for this grand new Community Hall and then simply abandoned it without a seconds thought to getting good value for money for Preston residents. We actually know that because there is not a single document anywhere in council records from or before the date of the Planning Application and approval to the elections in 2011. While these same people are exerting a heavy influence of our parish council they will hold back the whole village and restrict any progress we wish to make. All the people that I know who also knew the council over the period in question do not believe, do not trust and have absolutely no faith in those 4 councillors.

The main culprits of that era are still councillors today and they still wield a big influence on council business today. Preston (in my view) will never move forward in any sort of meaningful way until such time as past mistakes have been recognised accepted and put right, ensuring they can never happen again and putting our village onto a good footing for a much brighter, efficient and achieving future.