Absolutely Love this!
Anston Parish Council Survival Kit
History made in Rotherham at last nights meeting of Anston Parish Council when a tweeter live tweeted from the meeting. To view the tweets, click on this link to view Love Dinnington on Twitter as it happened!
Great piece of citizen journalism, all our thanks go to @LoveDinnington.
Rotherham Politics 
Can anybody tell me what is going off in Dinnington at the moment? I am told that Amanda Tyrrel who was the assistant Town clerk is no longer working there. I know over the years she has put an awful lot of hard work in the Lyric, getting little compensation for her hard efforts.
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I am wearing mine already in support of Dominic 🙂
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Probably get sued for infringing image rights or something, Graham!
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It will be worth it my wife likes her new husband lol
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Couldn’t resist copying and sending around Wales !
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Please don’t tell me how young Dominic is and all the talk about his inexperience after tonight’s meeting. Very professional and a great chairman!
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Graham. Can I assume you was at the meeting, following the comment. I think Dominic has ability like the rest of us, each of us carry different skills and abilities to the table. But I think a person of more mature years, would be more suitable as chairperson. Note this time that Ian St John was there to support him, the reason for the meeting getting out of hand last time. I have concerns when a person is on more than one parish council, that they can fully focus represent that community. On top of that I am going to assume that Dominic has a full time job, correct me if I am wrong. Kind regards Tim
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If you want private conversations, please use the phone.
Both of you likely represent the problem that Anston and many other parish councils have, blind loyalty to party!
There are no party political solutions to be found here, certainly not from UKIP!
The people want a voice! No political party can give them that.
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I left Anston PC meeting at close of business at 9:30pm. Cllr.Beck on his best behaviour tonight but he was reminded-by 3 different persons- he did not ‘adjourn’ last weeks meeting, he closed it.
He managed to get through tonight’s meeting without any acrimony from either side but I would say that Ian St.John’s version of certain events was strongly contradicted by Cllr.Thornton and 2 or3 members of the public.
Poor Mr.Lewis did not get either the apology he demanded or a better explanation of the events that led to his dissatisfaction.
Final question of the evening was to ask Dominic Beck if he stood by his comments in the newspaper concerning last weeks meeting; he replied he did.
Save-our-greenbelt will be addressing Anston Parish Council in the next few weeks to explain their organisation and aims to the councillors, let’s hope they manage to change a few minds.
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If I could adopt the councillors I would as they are a lovely bunch of rascals 🙂
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Mr tawn that was not the last question of the evening it was Mr kavaner to Mr Thornton, if he had found the 50k which he had published on his manifesto leaflet, but he could not answer.
Perhaps It’s better not to ask other cllr’s to stand up to their manifesto when you cannot answer your own.
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Oh dear that’s a lot of money. I guess that would be like looking for an elefant in a lift considering how small the parish council is. Maybe when we have the Anston fun day we can have a game called “find the 50k” however I am sure mr Thornton has good intentions considering how enthusiatic he his at meetings. Bravo to him!
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Yeah I left that off my summary as I don’t know the details of that issue exactly. If someone with more knowledge could throw some light on it?
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I understand this is around the precept being raised by 25K a year, to cover the costs against the council from a dispute on the green. I am not sure how much the dispute finally cost the council, but the precept wasn’t dropped by 25K once the costs were covered. This means that Anston Parish council now have an extra £25K a year to spend, what additional benefit is this now giving the community or is it creating a additional surplus in their accounts some where. With this topic not even being brought up in the questions at the start of the meeting, I feel that this topic would have been more relevant to the next meeting, to enable it to be fully answered.
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Hold hard there cowboy!
Do not insult me on a public forum. I will rephrase my penultimate paragraph; ONE of the questions was……………………………………….
OK?
I was up at 6am yesterday morning and I posted at 10:10pm, sorry if I appear slightly wrong.
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My question to the Parish council at the end of the meeting, was “would they would vote on opposing or rejecting the core strategy?” at the next meeting. I was assured this would be the case.
Rest deleted due to digression, commenters ‘pet’ subjects have no relevance to the subject at hand. Rothpol
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anonymous
If you are brave enough to put your real name on this post, then you may get the answer you seek. All Cllrs should be subject to public scrutiny, but you should try asking searching questions about other Cllrs on the Parish. I have nothing to hide, but others do. I give you the example of Cllr St John refusing to declare what contact he has had with the Brethern. I did not hear you or anyone else speak up on this issue. Selective red specs again.
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The so called question about the 50k was a set up by Becks cronies, Beck allowed this guy to harangue councillor Thornton on a subject that had not been discussed; either at the first meeting or this one. Yet just prior to this he tried to stop a lady from speaking regarding the skate park, with the excuse it had not been discussed at this meeting, yet this was supposed to be the continuation of the last meeting; where it was discussed. I found it pathetic when I arrived and the police followed me in, is this the great democracy and one nation politics that Ed Milliband has suddenly decided to embrace. This council is a disgrace and no matter how much sycophants like Graham Wilson bleat on they will not convince the voters of Anston to think differently. Beck gave us an exhibition of tap dancing that Fred Astair would have been proud of, when asked if he was a member of the standards committee, and how will he deal with the complaint about Sinjin. I am about a third of the way through writing a comedy play about the antics of Sinjin, it has a working title of When I see an Elephant Lie.
Dave Smith
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I went to the meeting to see what all the fuss was about – I will give you a fuller run down of my impressions later except to say my overriding feeling was that if Councillor Thornton was Chair APC would demonstrate a lot more intitiative and grip. Although, I can see why Labour don’t like him (who will rid me of this meddlesome councillor?, springs to mind) but we need people like him who want to hold powers that be to account.
On a factual point Mr Thornton was sprung the question about the £50k at about 9.31pm. He did not refuse to answer. On the contrary he offered to give a fuller answer at a future date in reply to a written question. He could easily have given a fob-off with the excuse that “time was up”. His offer was a lot more forthcoming and constructive than some of the other responses to comments from the public, the vast majority of which went unanswered.
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Interesting news that those attending may have missed. Shortly after the Meeting was opened by the Chairman, Cllr Beck, I asked him why the Public had not been allowed to ask any questions?.
Cllr Beck shrugged his shoulders and tried to carry on. I pointed out to him that he had “CLOSED” the last Meeting and therefore this was a new Council Meeting, so the public should be allowed to ask questions.
Cllr Beck then stated ” I ADJOURNED THE MEETING” (my capitals). I said “no you did not you closed the Meeting” Cllr Beck replied again that he “ADJOURNED THE MEETING” (my capitals again). I then made referance to what is written below. Early last week I and other Cllrs received notice by an email that the meeting would be on next Monday (25th Feb).
I wrote to the Clerk and pointed out that the Chairman had CLOSED the meeting, therefore if there was to be a meeting the following Monday, then it would have to be either an “Extraordinary Council Meeting” or a normal “Council Meeting”. Either way, all Cllrs would have to be given the Legal 3 days Notification (Summons) and a new Agenda would have to be issued. This email was circulated to all the Cllrs, including the Chairman Cllr Beck. The next day, all Cllrs recieved a new summons and a revised agenda by email ( which shows my point was correct) the summons was to a COUNCIL MEETING. At no time did the Chairman make any reply nor make any comments to other Cllrs regarding this new summons.
The Chairman “CLOSED” the Meeting and this was witnessed by all those persons who had remained behind. When the two Police Officers arrived to evict the retired Miner, it was pointed out to them that the meeting was closed, by a Member of the Public. At this, the Police Officer turned to Cllr Beck and said “is the meeting closed”, Cllr Beck replied “yes”.
When Cllr Beck called all the Cllrs back to the table, and then closed the Meeting, at no time was the word “ADJOURNED” ever mentioned.
Cllr Beck, when saying “he adjourned the meeting”, was at best, deliberately misleading the Public, or at worst deliberately lying to cover his tracks.
So you Members of the Public, you were denied the right to ask questions, and thus denied the right to hold the Parish Council to account.
A parish Council Chairman should not mislead or lie, to Members of the Public in Parish Council Meetings.
And he is still on the Standards Committee.
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