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It's terrifying how much power sits in these low level councils. A colleague Sat on his village council and left because he said they spent two hours each meeting discussing what expenses they could claim that month
I do wonder if there's an element of that here
*How dare you do for free a job we had lined up a family member's gardening business to do for a nice tidy expenses claim!?*
100%. Sheffield clowncil keeps giving public art contracts to the son of a councillor. The village council near me got caught taking all the proceeds from a bonfire night that was meant for charity
An old client of mine running a translation business had actual fraud convictions that made it into a national paper. His dad was the local mayor. His entire business was built on multiple local government contracts that he got without fail, despite failing to meet the basic requirements of the tender.
At least when trying to squeeze money out of an uncle in the council, get the tender written so only you can meet it. Ie. "Business must be owned by someone born in the town, and must demonstrate at least 5 years experience of the type of work offered".
You are free express your opinion of his artwork. Accusing one of his parents of doing something potentially illegal is best avoided unless you are able to prove it is true.
100% that will have been the primary motivation. This kid was doing a genuine service for free, for his community. What an absolute gem.
Sadly, some nasty spiteful individual just saw a payday go up in smoke and tried to use the police to get some revenge. Fucking terrifying to these people had power.
They should be utterly ashamed of how they treated this lad. They can have their free time back.
That goes higher up than parish councils, I've seen worse go on at executive agencies.
"Yeah, you know that guidance you were paid £15k to write and is the entire reason this agency exists? Here's a £500 per day NED to tell us how to ignore it".
For me it’s more that politics has a tendency to attract people who want a bit of power and enjoy telling people what to do. When they realise they don’t actually have a whole lot, people then choose to flex that limited power in ridiculous ways.
Having said that it also attracts people who genuinely want to make a positive difference, but when there are more of the former than the latter it’s disastrous and the lower down the pole you go the higher the chances of weirdo jobsworths getting elected there is because no one else wants to do it.
I think it's more accurate to say that the type of person who wants to be a politician wants the power to alter things to benefit themselves and is highly susceptible to corruption as a result. Often people talk about power as this abstract, where people get off on simply being in charge of things, when the reality is that it's all driven by (economic) self interest.
We're actively sending our worst.
> It's terrifying how much power sits in these low level councils.
I mean, yes and no. They'd be pretty pointless if they'd have no power at all and the small local issues can't be determined locally.
The real issue here is the inane actions of said council. It's not like central government are above making bad decisions either, is it?
They shouldn’t even really exist at all
The gov structure should be UK, Devolved Gov (Stormont, Holyrood, Senned), Metropolitan mayoralties for cities with over 500k, and then County Councils. That’s it. No more.
Well, after a bit of a coup a local volunteer group took over our town council and now its actively quite good. So I don't agree.
People just need to realise that this is the sort of democracy that it is there for the taking if people club together and work for the better of the community.
Some town councils are doing well, the one near me is quite good, they essentially maintain the parks and run events for the local populace and have quite a small annual budget (~£1m per year). They seem to manage pretty well despite this small budget.
I am a Town Councillor, and the reality is that Parishes have very few powers unless they are given them and even less money. The vast majority of people who do this are volunteers who only get to claim mileage as an expense.
Parish councils should be elected by Last past the post; all adults in the parish automatically get added to the ballot & the one’s with the fewest votes get the job.
What has their level of power have to do with how much time they spend discussing their expenses claims. Could you give an example of how much power they have which should not be in a locally elected body?
I'm in a local litter picking group and we go out most Saturdays for an hour or two and pick up litter. Just off the streets and pavements, not on private land obv. Most people - 99% - are very grateful but you do get the odd one who comes up to me aggressively and says things like "what do you think you're doing? Who gave you permission to do this?, I'm reporting you to the council". Stuff like that.
Some ppl are just looking for a fight. I blank em, I don't even look at them. I completely ignore them and then they usually fuck off, presumably to pick a fight with someone else.
I thought this was going to be someone cutting down a wildflower patch or something, but no it's just overgrown plants blocking a pavement.
I can't believe two people felt he need to report this to the police rather than just thanking him for caring about the local community.
> He went to Church Road and cut back the hedges and strimmed the grass and weeds.
> But within 10 minutes of posting that he had completed the work, a council member commented on his social media post to tell him he had broken the law and that the act was criminal damage.
> Later, on June 11, Cumbria Police received a report of verges being cut.
> It led villagers to criticise the parish council, and it emerged that all seven members resigned on June 20 because of the backlash to police being called in.
> Cumbria Police said it had received two reports about the grass cutting, but no further action would be taken as it was a civil matter.
> In a statement posted on the parish council website said “As of June 20, and following an orchestrated campaign of bullying and abuse, both online and in person, against the members of the parish council and the clerk, Broughton Moor no longer has a parish council.
> “All future plans for improvements for the village have been cancelled and the community centre has been closed.
Those last 2 paragraphs pretty much show the level of contempt these people had on the community they were supposed to serve. Imagine the mental gymnastics you did to think you were in the right here
> Imagine the mental gymnastics you did to think you were in the right here
And to think anyone is going to miss them rather than actually being better off without them.
It gets better:
[after resigning] In a statement, Broughton Moor Parish Council said: "Hopefully the village will recognise what it has lost."
https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/24404283.broughton-moor-parish-councillors-unanimously-resign-backlash/
My Mum served on our village's parish council. She was in her mid-50s and said she was the youngest person there by a good 15 years. The secretary worked 3 days a week and was being paid nearly £10k more than I was earning as a postdoc researcher at a university, and complaining all the time she was going to quit because it was a "slave-wage". They managed to get absolutely nothing done in the 12 months my mum was there, every single thing she proposed got shot down, she ran multiple events basically without any support which were then claimed as the hard work of the little OAP clique who dominated. She quit after being the lead on the Christmas do, everyone had a great time, and still the idk chairman or president or whatever didn't even credit her when giving the closing speech because they'd had a bit of a spat a few weeks earlier over some other issue, I think the secretary not doing her job. She left that night in tears and quit after the New Year.
Its the usual thing in this country. Like to a point its almost clichéd. You have a handful of people who earnestly and genuinely just want to do some good and give back to the community. And then you have this seemingly much larger (and usually much older) group who sit back, do absolutely sod all but scratch their own back, take credit for absolutely everything from absolutely everyone despite their complete disinterest at doing anything, and then will explode into fits of apoplectic rage if anyone ever dares to try and call them out on this and stoop to any petty level to ensure their little image of themselves never gets challenged or tarnished. Those petty people "win" because they bully and exploit the good-willed people to the point they quit, and then everything just falls to shit until some new crop of gullible fools step up and start letting themselves get exploited in their turn.
You're that generation too... Small airfields still use exclusively leaded petrol in the UK. Apparently they can't be sure alternatives will work in the old engines of the planes, so for the safety of rich people aboard private planes, they continue to use lead, while totally ignoring the safety of far more people on the ground breathing the fumes...
By secretary do you mean secretary or the council clerk who is likely also the RFO. With statutory responsibilities, it’s quite a skilled role. The pay of which is agreed with NALC https://www.slcc.co.uk/revised-salary-scales-from-1-april-2023/
Parish council also by law have an annual audit. And of course if they are bad they can be voted out.
The pay scale goes up to about 85k. If it is a reasonable sized council 40k is not amazing. They effectively fulfil the roll of the ceo. They have a bunch of legal responsibilities. And if they had councillors referring to them as a secretary I can see why they would be annoyed.
5000 is a pretty reasonable sized parish, there are a lot that are sub 300 people.
Parish councils have a lot of faults but paying a clerk more than minimum wages is not one of them.
She was not on "more than minimum wage" she was earning a solid 30% more than a specialist research scientist working on big international projects, for a three day week, and was still insufficiently motivated to actually do a proper job.
Again a clerk is a specialist role with a statutory responsibility with a national union agreed pay scale.
Your issue is with the scientist’s pay not the clerks. You shouldn’t belittle other people’s skilled roles because your job doesn’t pay as much.
He missed the end of the statement which IMO is the most pathetic bit:
“It is almost certain that the diocese of Carlisle will not now gift the church building to the community, something which the parish council had fought hard to achieve.
“Hopefully, the village will recognise what it has lost.”
>In a statement posted on the parish council website said “As of June 20, and following an orchestrated campaign of bullying and abuse, both online and in person, against the members of the parish council and the clerk, Broughton Moor no longer has a parish council.
>“All future plans for improvements for the village have been cancelled and the community centre has been closed.
This is infuriating. How dare they play the victim! And instead of simply apologising they double down and throw their rattles out of the pram.
It's the modus operandi for all of these individuals, not just politicians, but also journalists, officers, anybody in any position of power or influence.
They love throwing their weight around, up until they get push-back, then they cry victim.
"Boohoo, mean tweets, harassment, blablabla..."
The parish council get funding, from the council tax. Those decent people would be far better off becoming parish councillors than forming community group.
Parish councillors are elected, and a parish isn't that big, so it shouldn't be that difficult to get elected if you came up with a plan that local people liked the sound of.
Firstly, what a lovely and kind act by that young man. Very generous and community-minded thing to do given that took him over six hours of his own time.
Reporting such a nice action to the police is beneath contempt in my opinion. It is absolutely not a criminal matter and it's mad that they would think it is. How detached from the world people can be?
Finally, the utter pettiness of that resignation statement from the former parish Council members is hard to believe. What mean, unpleasant, and vindictive people they all are. Awful.
This must be what’s left of David Cameron’s big society, where we’re all meant to chip in and help out so that councils can have their funding slashed?
First time I’ve ever seen anyone do anything remotely like that and they get reported to the police!
There is an old boy round here that does litter picking daily.
The local Facebook argues that he should get paid by the council who must be prioritising other areas.
It's not occurred to anyone to reduce the amount of littering that happens instead.
Utter madness.
There’s an old guy round here that mows the grass area behind some of the houses. He does it off his own back and uses his own mower etc.; mostly doing it in the evenings or at the weekend.
I think he just likes to keep busy and he chats to all his mates passing by on the footpaths.
He doesn’t have to do it; it should be the council cutting grass if anyone is gonna do it. But I hope nobody complains because it’s one of the few things where you see someone actually helping their community out. It should be praised and encouraged more tbh, that sort of thing.
Let the Parish minutes show: 'Nobody actually gives a shit. Fuck off and don't come back. And as your judgement has been shown to be questionable we shall undertake an Audit of expenses over the last 5 years.'
WTAF?
I want one of those idiots to actually sit down and explain how the hell they can call that criminal damage and how the hell they can justify their behaviour.
>In a statement posted on the parish council website said “As of June 20, and following an orchestrated campaign of bullying and abuse, both online and in person, against the members of the parish council and the clerk, Broughton Moor no longer has a parish council.
>“All future plans for improvements for the village have been cancelled and the community centre has been closed.
>“Cumberland council has been informed and will now assume responsibility for the governance of the village.
>“It is almost certain that the diocese of Carlisle will not now gift the church building to the community, something which the parish council had fought hard to achieve.
>**“Hopefully, the village will recognise what it has lost.”**
What disgusting, spiteful little trolls. This altruistic action by an autisic person ended up unintentionally draining the swamp. A pleasant unintended consequence for once.
“Hopefully, the village will recognise what it has lost.”
Seems that they've lost 7 petulant adults (children) with a serious case of Walter Mitty syndrome.
I commend all persons to send a letter to Alan Myers thanking him for his contribution to civilised life.
As I do not know his address, may I by proxy send it via this reddit page.
Thank You Alan.
The article itself gets even better:
>In a statement posted on the parish council website said “As of June 20, and following an orchestrated campaign of bullying and abuse, both online and in person, against the members of the parish council and the clerk, Broughton Moor no longer has a parish council.
>“All future plans for improvements for the village have been cancelled and the community centre has been closed.
>“Cumberland council has been informed and will now assume responsibility for the governance of the village.
>“It is almost certain that the diocese of Carlisle will not now gift the church building to the community, something which the parish council had fought hard to achieve.
>“Hopefully, the village will recognise what it has lost.”
What a bunch of self-important fools. Firstly they try to use the police go after someone who charitably fixed a serious safety hazard, and then when everyone reacts predictably they pull the 'woe is me' card and make themselves out to be the victims.
Councils have a statutory obligation to keep footpaths free of obstruction - the dft define the minimum width/overhang of footpaths and that was in massive violation.
Still is, in fairness but that's not the lad's fault.
They obviously forgot their Christian faith for a while then.
Or did they just let their own self righteousness out ?
Whatever... unsuitable for the position. Monkeys playing like people.
It is against the law to disturb nesting birds so if he did this in nesting season, and there were eggs or young in the bushes, then yes, he broke the law.
It's a blow for bio-diversity. The long grass and weeds are good for insects etc.
What was the hedge dividing? Did the hedge cutter consider nesting birds. You cannot trim hedges around farm land, market gardens, allotments etc for six months from March to end August.
Although calling it criminal damage is a bit strong. If applicable Defra will educate the hedge trimmer.
You didn't even have to read it, just open the article and look at the pictures, but that was just too much effort wasn't it.
He cut back overgrown vegetation that was blocking the pavement.
You forgot the /s at the end of your post.
It was a public pavement next to a 40mph Rd that was overgrown with nettles, brambles and weeds.
A young man had gone out and done a good deed to help his community and you come out with this drivel.
Maybe the council should be looking at their statutory responsibilities to keep pavements accessible.
Easy tiger, you're assuming I had enough interest to read the story.
But no, people going around 'neatening' everything up to their own agitated human idea of tidy isn't something I agree with.
Little pockets of what most people see as neglected land can be extremely valuable to nature. The fact you're saying "nettles, brambles, and weeds" like it's a bad thing kinda shows this issue.
That said I've got literally zero idea of the context here and I don't care, I'm just using Reddit to hijack and whinge about something that bothers me.
A big part of councils not mowing is it obliterates insect life. The fact it can save money is a side that makes it a win win but alot of people seem to spin it as though the council is trying to pull a fast one on them using benefits to insects (and by extension birds) as a distraction.
> A big part of councils not mowing is it obliterates insect life.
No, that's the excuse they have peddled out to people for why they aren't keeping roads and paths tidy because it plays better than "We're fucking skint and can't afford to pay someone to do it".
My theory is that Graham the tree surgeon and gardener, who also happens to be married to one of the councillors, has probably kicked off after finding his pay day is DOA.
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It's terrifying how much power sits in these low level councils. A colleague Sat on his village council and left because he said they spent two hours each meeting discussing what expenses they could claim that month
I do wonder if there's an element of that here *How dare you do for free a job we had lined up a family member's gardening business to do for a nice tidy expenses claim!?*
100%. Sheffield clowncil keeps giving public art contracts to the son of a councillor. The village council near me got caught taking all the proceeds from a bonfire night that was meant for charity
An old client of mine running a translation business had actual fraud convictions that made it into a national paper. His dad was the local mayor. His entire business was built on multiple local government contracts that he got without fail, despite failing to meet the basic requirements of the tender.
At least when trying to squeeze money out of an uncle in the council, get the tender written so only you can meet it. Ie. "Business must be owned by someone born in the town, and must demonstrate at least 5 years experience of the type of work offered".
Exactly, it wasn't even competent corruption.
> Sheffield clowncil keeps giving public art contracts to the son of a councillor I handn't heard about this, who is it?
Luke Horton, renowned plagiarist
Ah shit, I didn't realise that he was the son of a councillor, do you know which councillor?
[удалено]
Probably best not to state rumours like they are facts then
Unbelievable lol, people just talk so much shite like it's fact and people eat it up everyday.
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You are free express your opinion of his artwork. Accusing one of his parents of doing something potentially illegal is best avoided unless you are able to prove it is true.
I don't like it but I'm not gonna make shit up about him
Clowncil I like it. Thanks
It's not true anyway
[удалено]
It's always the 'Liebour clowncil' around my area.
usually said by the sort of people you wouldn't trust to run a bath
100% that will have been the primary motivation. This kid was doing a genuine service for free, for his community. What an absolute gem. Sadly, some nasty spiteful individual just saw a payday go up in smoke and tried to use the police to get some revenge. Fucking terrifying to these people had power. They should be utterly ashamed of how they treated this lad. They can have their free time back.
That's exactly what I thought it was going to be about
That goes higher up than parish councils, I've seen worse go on at executive agencies. "Yeah, you know that guidance you were paid £15k to write and is the entire reason this agency exists? Here's a £500 per day NED to tell us how to ignore it".
9,000%
For me it’s more that politics has a tendency to attract people who want a bit of power and enjoy telling people what to do. When they realise they don’t actually have a whole lot, people then choose to flex that limited power in ridiculous ways. Having said that it also attracts people who genuinely want to make a positive difference, but when there are more of the former than the latter it’s disastrous and the lower down the pole you go the higher the chances of weirdo jobsworths getting elected there is because no one else wants to do it.
I think it's more accurate to say that the type of person who wants to be a politician wants the power to alter things to benefit themselves and is highly susceptible to corruption as a result. Often people talk about power as this abstract, where people get off on simply being in charge of things, when the reality is that it's all driven by (economic) self interest. We're actively sending our worst.
Same with some cops, not all of them obviously, but some are on total power trips.
Yeah and former officer to councillor is a very well trodden path for a reason.
Border/customs agents too
> It's terrifying how much power sits in these low level councils. I mean, yes and no. They'd be pretty pointless if they'd have no power at all and the small local issues can't be determined locally. The real issue here is the inane actions of said council. It's not like central government are above making bad decisions either, is it?
They shouldn’t even really exist at all The gov structure should be UK, Devolved Gov (Stormont, Holyrood, Senned), Metropolitan mayoralties for cities with over 500k, and then County Councils. That’s it. No more.
Well, after a bit of a coup a local volunteer group took over our town council and now its actively quite good. So I don't agree. People just need to realise that this is the sort of democracy that it is there for the taking if people club together and work for the better of the community.
I quite like the idea of larger English "regions" that have the same powers that the devolved govs have.
I'm a big fan of Yorkshire having devolution similar to Scotland or Wales. Those in London clearly don't give a fuck about us.
The referendum about setting up a north-east assembly resulted in an overwhelming no vote, and so regional devolution was knocked on the head.
Some town councils are doing well, the one near me is quite good, they essentially maintain the parks and run events for the local populace and have quite a small annual budget (~£1m per year). They seem to manage pretty well despite this small budget.
> Devolved Gov (Stormont, Holyrood, Senned), Need one for England too
I am a Town Councillor, and the reality is that Parishes have very few powers unless they are given them and even less money. The vast majority of people who do this are volunteers who only get to claim mileage as an expense.
Parish councils should be elected by Last past the post; all adults in the parish automatically get added to the ballot & the one’s with the fewest votes get the job.
Realistically you get what you pay for and the compensation isn't there for anyone worthwhile to run.
What has their level of power have to do with how much time they spend discussing their expenses claims. Could you give an example of how much power they have which should not be in a locally elected body?
I'm in a local litter picking group and we go out most Saturdays for an hour or two and pick up litter. Just off the streets and pavements, not on private land obv. Most people - 99% - are very grateful but you do get the odd one who comes up to me aggressively and says things like "what do you think you're doing? Who gave you permission to do this?, I'm reporting you to the council". Stuff like that. Some ppl are just looking for a fight. I blank em, I don't even look at them. I completely ignore them and then they usually fuck off, presumably to pick a fight with someone else.
>presumably to pick a fight with someone else. Ironic considering they has an issue with picking to begon with.
> Who gave you permission to do this? do you see my high vis vest? i am the permission
I thought this was going to be someone cutting down a wildflower patch or something, but no it's just overgrown plants blocking a pavement. I can't believe two people felt he need to report this to the police rather than just thanking him for caring about the local community.
It's genuinely incredible to me that someone could look at someone strimming a verge and go "criminal damage, must be". Imagine the mindset
What a group of small-minded bullies. I know that’s par for the course in terms of parish councils but my god what a pathetic lot.
I feel like Parish councils are a sink for petty, grasping Boomers with Napoleon complexes.
> He went to Church Road and cut back the hedges and strimmed the grass and weeds. > But within 10 minutes of posting that he had completed the work, a council member commented on his social media post to tell him he had broken the law and that the act was criminal damage. > Later, on June 11, Cumbria Police received a report of verges being cut. > It led villagers to criticise the parish council, and it emerged that all seven members resigned on June 20 because of the backlash to police being called in. > Cumbria Police said it had received two reports about the grass cutting, but no further action would be taken as it was a civil matter. > In a statement posted on the parish council website said “As of June 20, and following an orchestrated campaign of bullying and abuse, both online and in person, against the members of the parish council and the clerk, Broughton Moor no longer has a parish council. > “All future plans for improvements for the village have been cancelled and the community centre has been closed.
Those last 2 paragraphs pretty much show the level of contempt these people had on the community they were supposed to serve. Imagine the mental gymnastics you did to think you were in the right here
> Imagine the mental gymnastics you did to think you were in the right here And to think anyone is going to miss them rather than actually being better off without them.
So they just quit and closed the center. What's the protocol now? Can any member of the public just take over??
The article says the local council will arrange new elections to the Parish Council. Which doesn't just cease to exist as the members have gone.
Aww I was getting my bag packed to drive down and claim Dibs.
It gets better: [after resigning] In a statement, Broughton Moor Parish Council said: "Hopefully the village will recognise what it has lost." https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/24404283.broughton-moor-parish-councillors-unanimously-resign-backlash/
Yeah a Church that no doubt has multiple covenants. White elephant most likely.
I can just picture the face that wrote this. And they'll be of the generation that goes on about civic pride and how things were better 60 years ago..
My Mum served on our village's parish council. She was in her mid-50s and said she was the youngest person there by a good 15 years. The secretary worked 3 days a week and was being paid nearly £10k more than I was earning as a postdoc researcher at a university, and complaining all the time she was going to quit because it was a "slave-wage". They managed to get absolutely nothing done in the 12 months my mum was there, every single thing she proposed got shot down, she ran multiple events basically without any support which were then claimed as the hard work of the little OAP clique who dominated. She quit after being the lead on the Christmas do, everyone had a great time, and still the idk chairman or president or whatever didn't even credit her when giving the closing speech because they'd had a bit of a spat a few weeks earlier over some other issue, I think the secretary not doing her job. She left that night in tears and quit after the New Year. Its the usual thing in this country. Like to a point its almost clichéd. You have a handful of people who earnestly and genuinely just want to do some good and give back to the community. And then you have this seemingly much larger (and usually much older) group who sit back, do absolutely sod all but scratch their own back, take credit for absolutely everything from absolutely everyone despite their complete disinterest at doing anything, and then will explode into fits of apoplectic rage if anyone ever dares to try and call them out on this and stoop to any petty level to ensure their little image of themselves never gets challenged or tarnished. Those petty people "win" because they bully and exploit the good-willed people to the point they quit, and then everything just falls to shit until some new crop of gullible fools step up and start letting themselves get exploited in their turn.
The leaded petrol generation really is a millstone around the neck of the nation.
You're that generation too... Small airfields still use exclusively leaded petrol in the UK. Apparently they can't be sure alternatives will work in the old engines of the planes, so for the safety of rich people aboard private planes, they continue to use lead, while totally ignoring the safety of far more people on the ground breathing the fumes...
I'd take real offense at that statement if I could remember what you had just said...
He (she/they) says, misspelling *millstone*.
Whoops, that's what I get for posting on mobile.
By secretary do you mean secretary or the council clerk who is likely also the RFO. With statutory responsibilities, it’s quite a skilled role. The pay of which is agreed with NALC https://www.slcc.co.uk/revised-salary-scales-from-1-april-2023/ Parish council also by law have an annual audit. And of course if they are bad they can be voted out.
No idea mate, she only ever referred to her as "the secretary". She was around £40k though so outside of that payscale.
The pay scale goes up to about 85k. If it is a reasonable sized council 40k is not amazing. They effectively fulfil the roll of the ceo. They have a bunch of legal responsibilities. And if they had councillors referring to them as a secretary I can see why they would be annoyed.
Its a parish council for a village of under 5,000 people.
5000 is a pretty reasonable sized parish, there are a lot that are sub 300 people. Parish councils have a lot of faults but paying a clerk more than minimum wages is not one of them.
She was not on "more than minimum wage" she was earning a solid 30% more than a specialist research scientist working on big international projects, for a three day week, and was still insufficiently motivated to actually do a proper job.
Again a clerk is a specialist role with a statutory responsibility with a national union agreed pay scale. Your issue is with the scientist’s pay not the clerks. You shouldn’t belittle other people’s skilled roles because your job doesn’t pay as much.
That's more because researchers are paid shite wages.
She best be in work tomorrow then.
Proper 'these are my toys and we play with them how I like or not at all '
He missed the end of the statement which IMO is the most pathetic bit: “It is almost certain that the diocese of Carlisle will not now gift the church building to the community, something which the parish council had fought hard to achieve. “Hopefully, the village will recognise what it has lost.”
>In a statement posted on the parish council website said “As of June 20, and following an orchestrated campaign of bullying and abuse, both online and in person, against the members of the parish council and the clerk, Broughton Moor no longer has a parish council. >“All future plans for improvements for the village have been cancelled and the community centre has been closed. This is infuriating. How dare they play the victim! And instead of simply apologising they double down and throw their rattles out of the pram.
It's the modus operandi for all of these individuals, not just politicians, but also journalists, officers, anybody in any position of power or influence. They love throwing their weight around, up until they get push-back, then they cry victim. "Boohoo, mean tweets, harassment, blablabla..."
Sounds like quitting was the best thing that parish council could do, hopefully some decent people will form a new community group.
Right? What a good lad, cleared the pavement and the council, too.
The parish council get funding, from the council tax. Those decent people would be far better off becoming parish councillors than forming community group. Parish councillors are elected, and a parish isn't that big, so it shouldn't be that difficult to get elected if you came up with a plan that local people liked the sound of.
Most parish councillors run unopposed anyway, not many people want to work with the type of wankers the parish council attracts
The 22 year old guy sounds like he would do well in the job.
>hopefully some decent people will form a new community group. I think that's a big "hopefully".
Firstly, what a lovely and kind act by that young man. Very generous and community-minded thing to do given that took him over six hours of his own time. Reporting such a nice action to the police is beneath contempt in my opinion. It is absolutely not a criminal matter and it's mad that they would think it is. How detached from the world people can be? Finally, the utter pettiness of that resignation statement from the former parish Council members is hard to believe. What mean, unpleasant, and vindictive people they all are. Awful.
This must be what’s left of David Cameron’s big society, where we’re all meant to chip in and help out so that councils can have their funding slashed? First time I’ve ever seen anyone do anything remotely like that and they get reported to the police!
There is an old boy round here that does litter picking daily. The local Facebook argues that he should get paid by the council who must be prioritising other areas. It's not occurred to anyone to reduce the amount of littering that happens instead.
I feel like we need a Jackie Weaver comeback to set this lot straight.
You have no authority here Jackie Weaver.
IM DEPUTY IM IN CHARGE
Utter madness. There’s an old guy round here that mows the grass area behind some of the houses. He does it off his own back and uses his own mower etc.; mostly doing it in the evenings or at the weekend. I think he just likes to keep busy and he chats to all his mates passing by on the footpaths. He doesn’t have to do it; it should be the council cutting grass if anyone is gonna do it. But I hope nobody complains because it’s one of the few things where you see someone actually helping their community out. It should be praised and encouraged more tbh, that sort of thing.
Let the Parish minutes show: 'Nobody actually gives a shit. Fuck off and don't come back. And as your judgement has been shown to be questionable we shall undertake an Audit of expenses over the last 5 years.'
WTAF? I want one of those idiots to actually sit down and explain how the hell they can call that criminal damage and how the hell they can justify their behaviour.
Well I think we know of at least one replacement councillor:)
Yes! I do hope he is puts himself up!
>In a statement posted on the parish council website said “As of June 20, and following an orchestrated campaign of bullying and abuse, both online and in person, against the members of the parish council and the clerk, Broughton Moor no longer has a parish council. >“All future plans for improvements for the village have been cancelled and the community centre has been closed. >“Cumberland council has been informed and will now assume responsibility for the governance of the village. >“It is almost certain that the diocese of Carlisle will not now gift the church building to the community, something which the parish council had fought hard to achieve. >**“Hopefully, the village will recognise what it has lost.”** What disgusting, spiteful little trolls. This altruistic action by an autisic person ended up unintentionally draining the swamp. A pleasant unintended consequence for once.
“Hopefully, the village will recognise what it has lost.” Seems that they've lost 7 petulant adults (children) with a serious case of Walter Mitty syndrome.
There must be a better system to govern than local councillors, that obviously includes democracy.
I commend all persons to send a letter to Alan Myers thanking him for his contribution to civilised life. As I do not know his address, may I by proxy send it via this reddit page. Thank You Alan.
They should quit for not getting it sorted out themselves.
The article itself gets even better: >In a statement posted on the parish council website said “As of June 20, and following an orchestrated campaign of bullying and abuse, both online and in person, against the members of the parish council and the clerk, Broughton Moor no longer has a parish council. >“All future plans for improvements for the village have been cancelled and the community centre has been closed. >“Cumberland council has been informed and will now assume responsibility for the governance of the village. >“It is almost certain that the diocese of Carlisle will not now gift the church building to the community, something which the parish council had fought hard to achieve. >“Hopefully, the village will recognise what it has lost.” What a bunch of self-important fools. Firstly they try to use the police go after someone who charitably fixed a serious safety hazard, and then when everyone reacts predictably they pull the 'woe is me' card and make themselves out to be the victims.
Councils have a statutory obligation to keep footpaths free of obstruction - the dft define the minimum width/overhang of footpaths and that was in massive violation. Still is, in fairness but that's not the lad's fault.
They obviously forgot their Christian faith for a while then. Or did they just let their own self righteousness out ? Whatever... unsuitable for the position. Monkeys playing like people.
Is there absolutely anything that anyone can find to support the parish councils actions or is this a rare case of they’ve actually dropped a bollock?
Rare? Yeah they dropped the ball.
It is against the law to disturb nesting birds so if he did this in nesting season, and there were eggs or young in the bushes, then yes, he broke the law.
WE FOUND THE COUNCILORS!!!
He didn't get charged with a wildlife crime, so presumably not? Who's saying he didn't look, you?
[удалено]
And this is precisely what's wrong with this country.
It's a blow for bio-diversity. The long grass and weeds are good for insects etc. What was the hedge dividing? Did the hedge cutter consider nesting birds. You cannot trim hedges around farm land, market gardens, allotments etc for six months from March to end August. Although calling it criminal damage is a bit strong. If applicable Defra will educate the hedge trimmer.
Then perhaps those locations shouldn't be placed next to pavements that pedestrians need for getting about?
You didn't even have to read it, just open the article and look at the pictures, but that was just too much effort wasn't it. He cut back overgrown vegetation that was blocking the pavement.
If only the article provided you with pictures and a description of what happened. Then you wouldn't have to make daft comments like this.
It was covering a pavement. You gonna worry about insects or humans walking on the road? There can be long grass kept elsewhere
Lol there is always one. No.
Yeah, no. It's not good practice to go around hacking at plants on other people's land without asking.
You forgot the /s at the end of your post. It was a public pavement next to a 40mph Rd that was overgrown with nettles, brambles and weeds. A young man had gone out and done a good deed to help his community and you come out with this drivel. Maybe the council should be looking at their statutory responsibilities to keep pavements accessible.
Easy tiger, you're assuming I had enough interest to read the story. But no, people going around 'neatening' everything up to their own agitated human idea of tidy isn't something I agree with. Little pockets of what most people see as neglected land can be extremely valuable to nature. The fact you're saying "nettles, brambles, and weeds" like it's a bad thing kinda shows this issue. That said I've got literally zero idea of the context here and I don't care, I'm just using Reddit to hijack and whinge about something that bothers me.
brambles nettles and weeds on a public footpath? The guys done the right thing! Councils are strapped for cash and he's done the job for nothing
A big part of councils not mowing is it obliterates insect life. The fact it can save money is a side that makes it a win win but alot of people seem to spin it as though the council is trying to pull a fast one on them using benefits to insects (and by extension birds) as a distraction.
Im sure the 3feet of pathway wont make that much difference to insect life. We still need spaces for humans to walk safely too
Human lives are worth less than bug lives according to these people.
> A big part of councils not mowing is it obliterates insect life. No, that's the excuse they have peddled out to people for why they aren't keeping roads and paths tidy because it plays better than "We're fucking skint and can't afford to pay someone to do it".
My theory is that Graham the tree surgeon and gardener, who also happens to be married to one of the councillors, has probably kicked off after finding his pay day is DOA.
Thanks for illustrating my point.