Parish Council Intimidates Village Post Office

Parish Council Intimidates Village Post Office.

As a Blog we posted a notice in the Village Post Office on Main Street, Preston, making people aware of our site and inviting them to read it. As a democratic community we are entitled to hold a view that differs from that of the Parish Council and we are legally entitled to make that view known.

Preston Parish Council it would seem wish to shut down any views that do not fall in line with its own view and appear to be intimidating the Post Office into not displaying an advertisement for this blog. Having queried the removal of our advert we have been informed by the shop owners that a number of Parish Councillors have been in demanding its removal, a number of councillors have since been in one by one to ensure the advert is not displayed. This is a long way from democracy and clearly demonstrates the lengths the Parish Council will go to in order to silence dissenting opinion.

We have been informed by the shop owner that an official from East Riding of Yorkshire Council rang the shop and told them they should not display the advert. The Parish Council rang Democratic Services to ask for advice on how to deal with the issue, having now spoken to the ER official who actually dealt with the query from Preston Parish Council we are assured that no official from East Riding Council has contacted the shop owner to request the removal of the advert. Because the Parish Council informed East Riding Council that the advert contained untruths about the Parish Council. They (East Riding) did advise the Parish Council to approach the shop owner and request its removal on the grounds that it contained untruths. Failing that, the Parish Council could take legal advice on the matter, it may well be the Parish Council are happy to waste many thousands of pounds of public funds on legal advice or action that we would suggest is doomed to failure. They would appear to have the long held belief that it is far better to spend thousands of pounds of ratepayers money rather than talk to a resident, we’ve been here before and last time it cost residents almost £9,000, what did the council achieve, precisely nothing!!

There has been nothing on this site that to our knowledge is untrue, and no one has ever challenged our views with a credible alternative, just to recap on some of the issues:

Failing to make information available.

The council has consistently failed to make information available when requested to do so under the Freedom of Information Act. This is not a one off occurrence it is consistent with virtually every request that has been submitted to Preston Parish Council over a period of more than 3 years. All requests have been submitted by e-mail so we are able to corroborate all of them, we can also very clearly demonstrate the Councils non-response to the vast majority of those requests by either ignoring the request and not responding at all or forwarding information that is clearly not the information requested.

Dishonest Statements to the Standards Committee.

We are in possession of the text of statements submitted to the Standards Committee some of which are clearly false and untrue, this is not the kind of behaviour we are entitled to expect from our elected officials. We are in a position to defend our position, there is also an e-petition on the Central Government’s web site requesting an independent investigation into the matter of dishonest councillors. The petition is listed as being under the jurisdiction of the Department for Communities and Local Government who validate petitions prior to allowing them to be posted on their site. Listed on that petition is the name of this blog as a source of background information relating to the petition, this Blog is therefore an integral part of that petition

The Government in their validation process seeks to identify any libelous statements which would invalidate any petition; it is therefore entirely reasonable to conclude that Central Government Officials have read this blog to check for any libelous statements, any libelous statements would invalidate the petition and it would therefore not have been published. In validating the e-petition and posting it on the Government site it is also reasonable to conclude they did not identify any libelous statements in this blog.

It is entirely reasonable when dishonesty is believed to have taken place to request an independent investigation to establish the facts and truth. Rather than using bullying tactics to silence opinion, the Parish Council would be much better employed taking steps to resolve the issue and if as they would appear to believe, there has been no dishonesty, establishing the facts and proving their case.

The council is clearly unhappy with the statements posted on this blog, including:

Illegal use of public funds by Preston Parish Council.

We believe that Preston Parish Council spent approximately £10,000 of public funds illegally with regard to two planning applications in 2006/7, we have requested the minutes that would confirm that belief to be wrong. In the first instance the council employed its usual tactic of simply ignoring the request for many months, after being prompted the council forwarded 3 sets of minutes that had no connection to the information requested. A request for clarification was sent to the council a number of months ago, to date that request has once again been ignored. We can only conclude that the council is unable to show they acted legally in spending those public funds.

Wasting of Public Funds by Preston Parish Council.

Preston Parish council has wasted many thousands of pounds of resident’s money on ill thought out schemes such as a new community hall and planning permissions and by refusing to engage with residents, which caused a loss of many thousands of pounds by resulting in an entirely unnecessary Audit by the Audit Commission.

Unlawful Council Meetings.

The council has in the recent past convened unlawful council meetings by not providing the public with the legally required 3 days minimum notice of the meetings, during one of those meetings the council unlawfully co-opted a new councillor. As a consequence that councillor has not been lawfully co-opted and is therefore still a member of the general public and not a legally constituted Parish Councillor, we have therefore had a member of the general public taking part in council meetings, contributing to council business and voting on council matters that effect the whole of Preston. Such a position is clearly unacceptable and makes a mockery of all the democratically accepted norms, it also brings into question all meetings that member of the general public has taken an active part in.

All the above points are documented facts that can be confirmed by public record.

If the council disagree with any issue listed on this Blog they should either talk to the author and discuss the issues with a view to resolving them or have a public debate on all issues listed on this Blog and settle the matters once and for all, we are in full support of any steps that seeks to establish the truth. What they should not do is intimidate an honest and innocent shopkeeper instructing him what he can or can’t display in his own shop window.

If as the shopkeeper insists, an Official from East Riding rang to request the advert be removed and equally East Riding insist that no official from that authority rang the shopkeeper then who did? Obviously someone did, our only conclusion is that someone connected to Preston Parish Council rang the shopkeeper pretending to be an Official from East Riding Council to ensure the removal of the offending advert!! So once again there is a question of dishonesty and deception that blights our Parish Council. What is it they are trying to conceal so desperately that they need to employ such dishonest and devious methods?

In over three years the council have not made any attempt to discuss any issue on this Blog despite many requests to do so. A council who is engaged with its community and has nothing to hide would act to quench any questions of dishonesty or wrongdoing brought by any of its residents in an open and transparent way either in private talks or public debate.

We do not intend at this time to request the shopkeeper to relist the advert, it would be unfair to the shopkeeper who is striving to make an honest living and it would be wrong and disrespectful to place him in such a difficult position. We do however intend to distribute the advert to a wider audience by whatever means are available to us.