PRESTON PARISH COUNCIL/STANDARDS COMMITTEE POST 2.

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POST 2. GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL ASSOCIATIONS

It would be appropriate to outline group and individual associations for the purposes of clarity.

Complainant,

Kenneth Lyons, Resident.

I have opposed Preston Parish Council since mid 2010, when it became apparent to me from carefully considering the available evidence that the council operated in the best interests of those other than residents and wasted large sums of public funds.

Although I personally know a number of Parish Councillors, we cannot be described as friends and as time moves on with my persistence in trying to get to the truth, I become more and more ostracized by some members of the Parish Council and residents associated with the Parish Council, which fortunately in my view is a very small and insignificant percentage of our population.

By not posting the truth I firmly believe that I would be exposing other residents to very real risk of the same abuse, and possibly by the same person should any resident wish to disagree with the Parish Council in the future, I refuse to expose my fellow residents to the risk of any such abuse.

I have separated Council witnesses into the groups I shall be referring to later in this post.

Council witnesses.

Group A  Cllrs.                                   Date joined Council

Janet Weatherill                                  May 2011

Adrian Bullock                                    May 2011

Mandy Masters                                   May 2011

Keith Gilby                                           March 2012

Elizabeth Whatling 2010 ?

Group B Cllrs.                                      Date joined Council

Julian Clappison                                   < May 1999

Geoff Bell                                                < May 1999

Pam Fortnum                                        < May 1999

Barbara Mendham                                  May 2003

Mike Fenwick                                       < April 2007

In my honest opinion the make up of the two groups gives an insight into why there is such a serious discrepancy between the witness statements. All the inaccuracies that in my opinion exist are confined to Group B, the group containing longer serving members of the Council who have been colleagues for many years.

At the time of the incident Cllr. Julian Clappison was Council Chairman and Cllr. Geoff Bell was Vice Chairman. I believe that it is very telling that Cllr. Clappison chose not to comment. Cllr. Clappison and I have opposed each other for more than 3 years and I honestly believe Cllr. Clappison would not overlook any opportunity to take advantage of this issue if I was in the wrong or being dishonest in any way.

I honestly believe Cllr. Clappison was not foolish enough to submit an untruthful statement but couldn’t tell the truth, as that would have condemned his long-standing colleague and friend.

Non Commenter’s.

There are a few members of the Parish Council who chose not to give witness statements, according to the Investigating Officer for the Standards Committee, Those were:

Councillor                                           Date joined Council

Martin Acey                                         May 2011

Helen Harrison                                   May 2011

Lyn Carmichael                                   May 2011

Nora Hughes                                        Not Known

New Councillors where elected in May 2011 in the hope that change for the better would result and our Parish Council would become more open, honest and accountable to the people who they represent. In my honest opinion all Councillors have a duty to uphold the Code of Conduct, which they swear to abide by on taking office. In my considered opinion all Councillors have a duty to respond when their governing body requests them to give a witness statement in connection to any incident that occurred during a Council meeting, to not do so is in my opinion failing the reasonable expectations of all residents who elected them.

I firmly believe that it is possible this matter could have been fully resolved some time ago if the above Councillors had given statements at the time.

POST 3

WITNESS STATEMENTS, will be posted in the next couple of days.

If there are any residents with similar experience of the council do please contact us by comment or email. If you wish we will post on your experience without your identity being released, or not post anything if you simply want to share your experience it’s entirely up to you. We would love to hear your story, your not alone, there are a number of us, let us compare notes and grow as a group.