Last night saw Dinnington Hero, Dave Smith, take his seat on Dinnington Town Council where he pointed out a number of sensible matters to DTC.
Probably the main and most important being that the Rotherham Business Plan was not on the Agenda for the meeting. Dave Smith then forced the chairman to put this on the Agenda as an Emergency Item. Well Done Dave.
OBSERVATIONS:
I have, courtesy of Love Dinnington, watched the web casts of DTC and noticed the lack of input to the meetings by many councillors. Most notably
Jane Havenhand, who appeared to just sit there doodling. Well last night I watched her in person, yes sitting there doodling and making no contribution.
This is the person who was Advisor for 2 years to Shaun Wright whilst Jo Burton (Anston) was Senior Advisor – Jane Havenhand then became Senior Advisor to Shaun Wright and was Senior Advisor when Paul Lakin took over after Shaun Wright’s ignominious departure.
Jane Havenhand has refused to reveal what she knew about Child Sexual Exploitation along with Jo Burton, despite Paul Lakin saying at a RMBC Meeting that Advisors were privy to the same information that Cabinet Members received.
Jane Havenhand is Chair of the Rother Valley South Area Assembly with Judy Dalton, Vice Chair, who by her own admission was (Senior) Advisor to Paul Lakin and who has the dubious provenance of setting up a company – Gangs & Grooming – making money out of the misery of the abused children!
Doesn’t Rother Valley South have better and more high minded councillors?
The Chair of DTC allowed the public to contribute during the meeting and a number of times relaying to the public what the timorously spoken Pauline Davies had to say – Speak up Pauline Davies if you have the conviction of your points, you are giving the Chairman extra work.
I congratulate The Clerk – he was open and informative in a clear voice – unlike the mumbling into his moustache we have to put up with from Michael Gazur, Clerk to APC.
I congratulate Cllr McIver, Chair of DTC, for a well run democratic meeting, unlike John Ireland, Chair of Anston Parish Council who at the last meeting said – “There is nobody in this meeting who has got more power than me other than the Queen.” YES that is what we have to put up with at Anston.
Roll on May.
Hilary Estrada-Haigh
Rotherham Politics 
Any decent and transparent organisation would have called Cllr Dalton to account for what I believe is a gross conflict of interests. Not RMBC! and therein lies the problem.
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You can view Dave’s maiden voyage here:
Like Hilary says well done to Ralph for a well run meeting and congrats to Dave, Dinnington will be well served indeed.
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The thing that surprised me on the night was that a councillor had brought with them the paper work for September but did not know until they opened the envelope; which means they had not bothered to read the information provided by the clerk. Not one councillor around that table had bothered to bring with them the Rotherham plan I was discussing, in fact the majority hadn’t a clue what I was talking about. I don’t suppose this is unique to Dinnington, After years of attending these meeting and wondering why they could not make a decision I now know why; they don’t bother to read the information and make themselves aware of what is happening. This is the calibre of Labour representation we have both at local level and borough, I must admit I was annoyed at how ill-informed they were. This positive from this meeting that having seen myself I am now on a diet.
Dave Smith
Dave Smith
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Not bothering to read the agenda pack is endemic at Anston. Recent example, St John and Beck proposed to accept a legal contract, it was quite clear neither had even read it. They then went on to do it again in the same meeting with another contract.
Dave started well, he told the Chairman that if he is going to lecture the public on their behaviour, then he should also do the same with his Cllrs. Cue blank looks from the Chairman. Anyone watching the meeting and not in the know, would have thought he had been on the council for years, He did extremely well for his first outing. It was commented upon that their was more discussion at that meeting than in a long time, this was due to someone being on the ball, and making an effort to read the paperwork.
Are his comments that Cllr Havenhand is a Labour lame duck true, I dont recall her saying a word at all throughout the whole meeting. Sitting there doodling on her paper shows her contempt for the Public, Quack, Quack WHOOOOPs.
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