Spotlight

N&STC: Pearls Before Swine

Nigel September 13, 2024 Newby & Scalby

N&STC: Pearls Before Swine

an “In My View” article by NIGEL WARD, reporting on an abortive attempt at a ‘mission of mercy’ to Newby & Scalby Town Council.

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Background

Readers unfamiliar with the ongoing contention over the conduct of Newby & Scalby Town Council and, more specifically, its Clerk/RFO, may wish to review the following Yorkshire Post article:

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/people/councillors-accused-of-digging-a-massive-hole-by-dropping-disciplinary-proceedings-against-bullying-clerk-4556908

The following North Yorks Enquirer articles may also serve to bring readers up-to-date:

“Another Toxic Town Council in Meltdown” – (pub. 21/07/24)
“N&S Parish Poll Update” (pub. 02/08/24)
“Newby & Scalby Parish Poll Victory” (pub. 18/08/24)
“Open Letter to Newby & Scalby Town Councillors” (pub. 25/08/24)

Readers with elephantine memories may even recall an article of mine entitled “[S]TOP SECRET – Parish Clerks: The Giant Leeches”, dating back to 24th November 2013 (and thus pre-dating the Exelby, Leeming & Newton Parish Council debacle covered in my recent article “EXELBY: 10 Years After”).

(Before moving swiftly along, permit me a plug for my 27th October 2023 article entitled “The Cult of the Clerk”, which sheds much-needed light on the manipulative opportunities available to less-than-scrupulous Clerks with malleable – often geriatric – Councillors mere putty in their hands).

That 2013 article of mine administered a salutary roasting to the Clerk/RFO, Mrs Jules MARLEY (whose husband Bob sits as a member on Newby & Scalby Town Council [N&STC]) – not the only whiff of nepotism, by the way, since Councillors Bob and Gill KENDALL are also a married couple (humourously described to me by an elderly resident as “strange bedfellows, even before they entered politics”). I know nothing of that, but I suspect I am about to learn . . .

As for the rest of the N&STC Councillors, I was disappointed to discover (visiting the Council’s “Members” web-page today) that all bar the Chair/Mayor, Councillor Richard THOMPSON and Councillor Derek BASTIMAN (who, as a North Yorkshire Council member can hardly hide his face under a bushel) have elected to eschew displaying their likenesses to the public – presumably in case some poor soul, on recognising a face, evinces the temerity to approach them in the parish on some matter of legitimate public interest. And, in my view, a Council comprising two married couples, two company co-directors (in Hackness Cleaning Services (Scarborough) Ltd, a Council-contracted caretaker and a Clerk/RFO whose husband is a member of the Council) is just a little too cosy to dispel fears of collusive voting.

But even this pusillanimous evasion of personal engagement pales into insignificance in comparison to the astonishing display of spinelessness I encountered when I physically attended a meeting of Full Council on the evening of Wednesday 11th September 2024.

Picture this:

a rectangular meeting-room divided across the centre by an impenetrable barrier of end-to-end tables such that not even a toy poodle could encroach upon the sacrosanct area reserved for members;

two uniformed security guards to protect members from anticipated physical attacks (really?) by predominantly pension-drawing parishioners;

members of the public being directed to a separate entrance through a courtyard to the rear of the building.

a clear inadequacy of seating, not only leaving the public gallery full to capacity [very limited standing-room also exhausted] but around fifteen or twenty people attempting to witness proceedings through side window, opened (very kindly) by NYC Councillor Subash SHARMA, whose own address to members was courteous, reasoned, beyond moral rebuttal and entirely wasted on the nine members (and Clerk/RFO) in attendance;

with the exception of the Chair, not one member made eye-contact with me throughout the entire duration of my presence.

Over the past fifteen years, I have attended many an utterly appalling travesty of a Town or Parish Council meeting – and documented them (without challenge or rebuttal) – but I have never, ever found myself cringing in sheer disbelief at such unanimously narcissistic shamelessness on a scale unparalled since the Borgias.

The Meeting of Full Council

It was disappointing to note that Councillors Derek BASTIMAN, Chris THISTLETON and Norman MURPHY (veteran of over a hundred articles on the North Yorks Enquirer) had tendered their apologies for absence (duly accepted) – and residents may also wish to note that former-Councillor David PICKERSGILL does not appear in the image above; I am given to understand that he resigned at the back end of last week. Shrewd move. I salute him.

I travelled to Newby on Wednesday to attend the Meeting, hopefully to avail myself of the opportunity to address both the Council at large and the widely-anticipated and righteously vocal Public Gallery (whom I thank for their considered attention) under Agenda Item 4 – Public Open Forum:

The Chair, Councillor Richard THOMPSON, acknowledged my raised hand and, without calling upon me to specify on which Agenda Item I wished to speak (as specified in Standing Orders), offered me the floor.

Here follows a short video of my address. For those who wish to consider my remarks at leisure, I have also provided an AI-generated transcript (below the video). I would place its accuracy in the ninety-ninth percentile.

The Video

The reponse from the Public Gallery was heartening. Fifty or sixty fully switched-on members of the public applauding not me (I am quite sure!) but a commonsensical resolution to an absurd Mexican stand-off – versus nine dead sheep, deeply absorbed in their navel-gazing charade of ‘Agenda Bingo’, unable to meet my eye.

I was particularly disappointed by the Councillor who had travelled to Whitby on the afternoon of Wednesday 4th September 2024, seeking advice as to how one might tender resignation from the Council without giving the appearance of running away, perhaps with something to hide, or ‘letting down’ colleagues. My advice was precisely as above. I understood it to have been accepted.

So, if you wish to gain our respect, Town Councillors, you have work to do to earn it. Big work. Your present standing is less than 1° above utter disdain. Surely, you are better than that? Are you really so afraid of a spurious Constructive Dismissal claim?

The AI Transcript

[0:00] – Good evening, Mr Mayor, good evening Councillors, good evening Madam Clerk.

[0:06] – My name is Nigel Ward. I’m an old man, as you see. I’m a man in failing health. The strength of my voice is perhaps not what it used to be. Some would say that the strength of my intellect is likewise.

[0:20] – Nevertheless, having had a career as an automotive designer of sports-racing cars, as a commercial composer of orchestral music for film and television, and fifteen years as an investigative journalist, I think I can say, with all due modesty, that I’m not really a fool.

[0:36] – So I’ve come here this evening from Whitby, and, as I hope you will accept, to try to pour some oil on troubled waters.

[0:44] – I know that there has been great dissension and contention and real unpleasantness.

[0:49] – What I have to say to you is simplicity itself. Please, extend me the courtesy of a few seconds if I overrun. This is not a boxing match, I don’t need to hear the bell. Just give me a little grace if you would, thanks.

[1:03] – So . . . I think everybody knows that this Council, like all Councils, is what is known as a “Creature of Statute”. What that expression means is that its existence and its regulation is a matter of Acts of Parliament.

[1:17] – And specifically, I’m talking, as you know, about the 1972 Local Government Act. More specifically, Schedule 12, Part 2, which pertains to Parish and Town Councils. We all know that the power of the Parish Poll or Town Poll is merely persuasive. The Poll has no weight in the law.

[1:40] – That document, the Local Government Act, I hold in great respect and reverence. It is, to me, what the American Constitution is to most Americans.

[1:48] – It is the blueprint for our democracy at the level of the community. We live, all of us, in communities.

[1:57] – But there are many, many omissions from the Local Government Act.

[2:01] – And these omissions are words and concepts that are the bedrock – the warp and weft – of society. Words like “Compassion” – are not in the document. “Neighbourliness”, “Care”, “Trust”, “Love”, “Affection”, “Humility”, “Respect”.

[2:20] – “Honour”.

[2:21] – These are the bedrock of how we get along with our neighbours. Nothing could be more important.

[2:27] – And the position of the Councill in that community, all Councils, is to provide services and amenities for the community. It is actually the pillar of the community. You could say that it is the flagstaff of the community, around which the community rallies and looks for support, succour and sustenance.

[2:48] – I hope you all agree with that. The Council is there to serve the people.

[2:51] – So, instead of having this horrible war of words, let us consider what could be done here to defuse a situation which, sooner or later, must be resolved.

[3:04] – World War III will end with a treaty, even if there are only a dozen left to sign it.

[3:09] – We must find a resolution. We cannot carry on with the Council at war with the people.

[3:15] – I hope you all see that. I certainly see it very clearly. And I speak to you and I speak to the members of the public synchronously, because everybody must come together on this.

[3:26] – So, I offer you a solution – an idea for a solution – and I hope you will take me very seriously.

[3:32] – The people – those who turned out – and we know that relatively few turned out – if the Council puts out a statement in advance that says, “You’re wasting your breath, you can do what you like”, clearly this will deter people from attending. [3:47] But nevertheless, of those attending, an enormous number have expressed their dissatisfaction with the Council.

[3:54] – Returning now to, neighbourliness, to honour, let us consider “How can the Council honour the view of the people, without losing any of its power or any of its credibility?”

[4:07] The Chair interjects: Please, Mr Ward, do you mind if I ask you to…

[4:11] – I’ll wrap it up very quickly.

[4:13] The Chair, again: Please. In about a minute.

[4:15] – No trouble at all. I’m grateful to you, sir.

[4:17] – So my suggestion is this:

[4:21] – “Honour”. Is there here, amongst these Councillors, somebody who will evince the Honour to do the following?

[4:27] – Step down, but announce your intention to stand again for office; to go for re-election; to campaign; to hold hustings; to put out leaflets, and say to the people:

“It is my wish and aspiration – and privilege – to serve this community. I ask for your vote, I ask for your mandate”.

[4:44] – And thus return a Council that has the full approval of the people.

[4:51] – I thank you, sir. That’s it. I thank you.

As one former Councillor regaled me, as I left the meeting, “Pearls before swine, Nigel, pearls before swine”.

Well, I have said it before . . . “One cannot educate pork”.

Or even a Wild Bore[sic].

This investigation is beginning to take on the look of shooting fish in a barrel. N&STC Councillors are aware (or should be aware) that they are legally bound by the Council’s adopted Code of Conduct, including Article 4 of Lord NOLAN’s Seven Principles of Public Life – Accountability: