Storm clouds gathering over town council – read all of our town council coverage from the latest edition

Storm clouds gathering over town council

MELKSHAM Town Council could be placed in ‘considerable financial risk’ following another bitter row, claim two councillors.

The issue came to light following a behind closed doors session of the town council’s Human Resources committee meeting, held last week, where recent dealings with staff are understood to have been discussed.

In a letter entitled ‘Shamocracy reigns at Melksham Town Council’, town councillor Martin Pain wrote, “Melksham Town Council is now at risk of being handed a hefty compensation bill which will be loaded upon the overburdened shoulders of our long suffering tax payers.”

And he has called for, what he calls the ‘Gang of Four’ – The Mayor, The Deputy Mayor, The Leader and The Deputy Leader – to resign.

Cllr Mike Sankey, leader of the Conservative group on the town council, also wrote, “The information was provided in private session so is confidential.” But he said “the Gang of Four who have assumed control of the town hall have placed the town council at considerable financial risk.

“If and when the town council gets hit financially, guess who will pick up the tab?  That’s right, Melksham residents… watch this space, next year’s increase in precept could be eye watering.”

A third local councillor, Wiltshire councillor Phil Alford, talked about ‘organised tyranny’ saying that valid questions have been side-stepped. He wrote, “The il-liberal group of ex-democrats were clearly not prepared to entertain questions from the public having first tried to gloss over public participation entirely. This council is no longer fit for purpose.”

The three councillors, and others, have said that staffing issues should, quite rightly, be considered in closed session but that the actions of some councillors should be debated out in the public domain and that there was a concerted attempt to close down genuine debate.

Councillor Jon Hubbard had been excluded from a previous closed council meeting after trying to ask a series of questions. The public, he said, had been refused answers to their questions, “so I attempted to ask as an elected councillor questions on behalf of the people I represent. I wanted to know about recent events where a few councillors had assumed to take executive powers upon themselves against all principles of democracy, Town Council rules and the law. These are important questions that it is essential that councillors are allowed to ask.  This is the whole point of democracy.”

However, leader of Melksham Town Council, cllr Vanessa Fiorelli has hit back in a personal letter to Melksham News, refuting the criticism and asking for council staff’s right to privacy. 

She wrote,  “Melksham Town Council has always ensured that internal staffing matters are held in the strictest confidence to protect the privacy of its staff… However, recently, certain councillors have deviated from these standards and have made the public and press aware of private staffing matters. 

“They have openly identified the staff involved and have now compromised their positions as councillors. I find it rather disturbing that some councillors, even after being advised of the strictly confidential nature of matters under discussion, still decided to make these matters known to the public. In no other workplace would this kind of behaviour be acceptable. 

“I can assure the public, which has been confirmed with councillors at a recent meeting, that the correct HR processes have been followed and the Town Council has been guided by, and implemented the advice of, its specialist HR consultants every step of the way.

“Our staff deserve the utmost respect and are entitled to have any matters dealt with in private; that is their right. Councillors have no grounds whatsoever to make these matters public and doing so is a clear breach of the councillors’ code of conduct. I can only conclude that their reasoning … is to turn it into a political point scoring exercise.

“I’m politely asking all councillors and members of the public to respect council staff’s right to privacy and allow for this matter to be resolved in a positive and private manner. These are my personal thoughts and not that of Melksham Town Council.”

Bitter rows

The increasingly bitter rows at the town council stretch back to early July when seven Liberal Democrats councillors switched to Independent in a move labelled as an attempt to hold onto decision making powers – a story exclusively revealed by Melksham News. 

Since then, there have been angry exchanges in meetings, online and in the pages of Melksham News; the police have looked into a number of allegations to establish if any criminal offence has been committed; there have been claims that decisions have been made that are unlawful; staff have been suspended and there has been a notice of no confidence motion in the deputy leader.

Row over Lib Dem leaflet

QUESTIONS were asked over the distribution of Lib Dem leaflets in the town, at the town council’s HR committee meeting held last week.

In the public participation, attendees asked why the leaflets were delivered after the town’s Lib Dem councillors had declared themselves Independent members of the council. They also said that some of the claims on the leaflet were misleading.

Paul Carter said, “This leaflet arrived weeks after the LibDems on the town council became Independents.

“The leaflet, under Lib Dem guises, mentions only Melksham Town and Without Council, therefore it would give the impression that everything refers to Melksham Town Council. Lib Dem funds must have been used to pay for this – is that even legal as LibDem have more financial resources than an independent?

“The contacts on the leaflet includes two town councillors, who are not county councillors, using personal emails. Is that allowed?

“One might also question them bumping up their role in the setting up of the community volunteer scheme!

“My concern is over transparency as I feel the leaflet is disingenuous and is deliberately blurring the lines between Town and County.”

Following the meeting, town councillors  Jon Hubbard, Martin Pain, Clive Jefferies, Sue Brown, Mike Sankey and  Richard Wiltshire sent a letter to Melksham News, which included the following statement:

“Several people have contacted us over the past couple of weeks expressing surprise at a leaflet being pushed through their letterboxes in which the Liberal Democrats on the Town Council appear to be claiming the credit for the recent Melksham Community Support Scheme.

“For the avoidance of doubt may we confirm that this volunteer-led scheme was in no way associated with any political party. It was a scheme jointly run by Age Friendly Melksham, the Melksham Area Board, Melksham Without Parish Council and Melksham Town Council. 

“Indeed, none of the councillors featured in the article in their leaflet were in any way involved or associated in the planning or delivery of the project.”

The councillors went on to thank everyone who has been involved in the town support initiative over the past four months.

Melksham News asked for clarification about the Lib Dem leaflet, which is entitled ‘Focus.’  

Chair of Chippenham Constituency Liberal Democrats, Katie Vigar said, “FOCUS is a community newsletter produced by Liberal Democrats across Wiltshire and as such it reports on activities in which members have been involved and shares news that residents may find useful. The Melksham edition thanks and gives credit to the Melksham Town and Without councils and the Community Support Group for their work on the coronavirus emergency.

“The leaflet clearly indicated that it was primarily from the two Lib Dem Wiltshire councillors for Melksham, Pat Aves and Hayley Illman, and the local Lib Dem team.  Vanessa and Adrienne have chosen to be Independents as Town Councillors and so no reference was made to them in that role.  However, they remain local Lib Dem members and their details are provided for the benefit of people who wish to be involved in the Melksham Liberal Democrat branch.”

Police response to town council allegations

SOME town councillors had made reference to police being called to speak to other town councillors about their conduct. Melksham News asked Wiltshire Police to confirm the situation in a statement.

Wiltshire Police said, “We conducted enquiries in relation to a number of allegations made regarding Melksham Town Council to establish if any criminal offence has been committed. 

“These enquiries have now concluded that the matters reported do not require a police investigation at this stage and the matter has now been referred to the local authority.

“If this determines a police investigation is required, we will look into the evidence at a later stage.”

More questions than answers

MELKSHAM Town Council’s transparency  was raised at a recent HR committee meeting, held on Wednesday 12th August. In the public forum of the meeting, the chair, cllr Pat Aves, said that each speaker would have three minutes in which to ask their question and their answers would be given in writing.

However, members of the public and councillors  queried why questions they had asked at a town council meeting held the previous week, were still yet to be answered.

Richard Wood asked if the answers to the questions would be made public. This was confirmed by cllr Aves, who said that they will be included within the minutes of the meeting, providing they do not contain any confidential information.

In a bid to aid transparency, Melksham News is providing some of the questions that were asked at the meeting, and if the answers are made public, these will be printed in a future edition of the paper. We have not included any questions which relate to HR matters involving staff at the Town Hall.

Pam Wiltshire:

“Could I ask the Deputy Mayor to confirm his comments made on  Facebook that there is no cost to the Melksham ratepayer for the work being done by the locum clerk.  If this is correct, I am sure we would like to thank the locum clerk for his altruism, If not, how much is the cost for him and the Locum Assistant, and who is paying or what budget it is coming from.”

Martin Pain 

“Noting that we have employed the services of an Office Manager I would like to know: 

(a). Who chose the candidate and at what cost?

(b). How many years experience does this person have of managing a Town Council Office?

(c). What is the duration of the contract.?”

Phil Alford:

“I was looking at the members of the HR committee and it struck me that the constitution was changed by the LIb Dem administration at the time – all committees need to be politically constructed to reflect the number of members in each political group.

“That was all well and good for a while and then we saw a big switch by the Lib Dems to be Independent. Crucially, the current HR committee has five members, which would therefore mean that one of the members would have to be Conservative to maintain that political balance. So I was wondering, is that something that has been organised, or has that recent membership been thrown together? Were the Conservative group asked if they wanted to have a representative on the committee?

“Where are these answers are going to go, how we find them out, and how transparent are you going to be? Because it comes across as if you are closing down any debate.”

Mike Sankey

“Just a quick comment, I have not yet received answers to questions I posed at last week’s meeting, so I would be grateful if they could be provided please.

“First question was with regards to the Roundhouse – we’ve received an electricity bill which amounts to £100 a week – I’m anxious that this should be investigated.

“The second – we had confirmation that the economic development manager confirmed that he had witnessed a member of the council being given access to our email servers – I wish to know who that councillor was.”

Sue Brown

“Leading on from last week, I hoped that my question would have been answered last week because cllr Sankey had already asked a similar question, but I was stopped after just a few words.

“With regards to an incident, a week/10 days ago now, where staff were locked out of Town Hall and the key codes changed, and that a certain councillor had to give permission for any staff to enter the Town Hall to carry out their duties – is that correct or not?”

Richard Wiltshire

“The question I have relates to the full council meeting on 1st June. At 21.20 in the committee membership it did state that the membership of the HR committee membership was stated and agreed. 

“This meeting was confirmed at a later meeting, but subsequently without any reference to the six month rule, which prevents any recision of a council meeting, your  executive seems to have gone ahead and changed the constitution of that HR committee – can you explain how this has happened within the rules of the council?”

Bryan Clover

“Very simple straightforward question – the mayor has said that a couple of these questions were sorted last week, but that was in closed session, so nobody else who was at that session will know what the answers were.

“When are you going to make the non-confidential elements of that meeting public? As you haven’t published the YouTube or the minutes yet, how long will people have to wait for transparency?”

Town council branded as ‘undemocratic’ as councillor is thrown out of meeting

A virtual meeting of an extraordinary meeting Melksham Town Council, held on 5th August, boiled over into acrimony as members of the public were angry over the questions they could ask and the number of questions allowed; while the appointment of a locum town clerk was also queried. 

In the second part of the meeting, which was held behind closed doors with the public and press excluded, due to confidential matters being discussed, other councillors voted to controversially exclude cllr Jon Hubbard. 

Following his exclusion from the second part of the meeting, cllr Hubbard said, “At the meeting of Melksham Town Council last night the public were refused answers to their questions. So I attempted to ask as an elected councillor questions on behalf of the people I represent. 

“I wanted to know about recent events where a few councillors had assumed to take executive powers upon themselves against all principles of democracy, Town Council rules and the law. These are important questions that it is essential that councillors are allowed to ask. This is the whole point of democracy. 

“These questions need to be asked as the council appears to be dysfunctional at a time when we need to see all councillors working together to support our community.

“As a community, we are facing challenges like never before, Covid-19, climate change, delegation of services to the Town Council as Wiltshire Council increasingly faces cuts. Now is the time to be working as a team, not playing petty personal politics.

“The result of my asking these questions was that as soon as the press and public were excluded from the meeting, the Liberal Democrat councillors voted en-bloc to kick me out. 

“They didn’t want these questions to be asked. It is time we all starting look forwards and focus on why we were elected and what the people of our town expect of their elected representatives.”

Council transparency questioned

The transparency of Melksham Town Council was called into question at a recent HR sub-committee meeting.

On Wednesday, 12th August, members of the public and councillors alike queried why questions asked at the previous week’s ‘disaster’ meeting were yet to be answered.

Cllr Mike Sankey and cllr Sue Brown both reported that questions had been left unanswered by Melksham Town Council from the previous meeting.

Wiltshire councillor, Philip Alford brought up the current makeup of the sub-committee itself, which is made up of all independents (former LibDems) and to create the necessary political balance at least one member should be from the Conservative group. Is that something that’s been organised, or have you thrown that recent membership together?” he asked. “Were the Conservative group asked if they wanted to have a representative on the committee?”

The chairman said that she believed this was also cleared up last week but said that she will reply to cllr Alford in writing.

It was pointed out by Bryan Clover that those questions left unanswered from public session may have been answered during the portion of the previous meeting where press and public were excluded.

Bryan Clover then asked, ‘How long do people have to wait for transparency?’ The recording of the meeting has yet to be uploaded to YouTube and the minutes made available.

Richard Wood asked if the answers to the questions would be made public. This was confirmed by cllr Aves, who said that they will be included within the minutes of the meeting, providing they do not contain any confidential information.

Cllr Alford followed up Richard Wood’s question, asking where these answers would be made available and how transparent the answers would be.

“It rather comes across as if it’s kind of closing down any kind of debate,” he said.

Cllr Aves replied, “It’s the same as it is at full council in Trowbridge Phil. The answers to the questions will be published with the minutes.”

It was pointed out by cllr Vanessa Fiorelli that there were only 15 minutes allotted for public questions before Pam Wiltshire began to ask a question and was muted. When asked for clarification on why she was muted, no further explanation was given and the council moved to closed session.

By Local Democracy Reporter, Matthew McLaughlin

Town council letters special – the people speak

You can read all of these letters on page 10 of our print and digital editions.

Shamocracy reigns at Melksham Town Council

Dear Sir,

At the outset of this mess I have maintained that I am not interested in passing judgement upon any member of the staff of Melksham Town Council – that is a future job for others after thorough and impartial investigation but what does concern me is that the right of all our staff  to fair, equal, unbiased and lawful treatment maintained within the law and common human decency.  

That requires that due process is strictly adhered to at all times.  

What is the problem? Four Councillors took it upon themselves to usurp power they did not possess and without the necessary authority and procedures suspended two members of staff.

On the 12 of August 2020 I attended a meeting, (later closed door), of the Council’s conveniently re-constituted Human Resources Committee; the details are still classified but suffice to say Melksham Town Council is now at risk of being handed a hefty compensation bill which will be loaded upon the overburdened shoulders of our long suffering tax payers but the mystery is why? 

This is not some minor fracas within council, it affects the lives of some of our staff and possibly the pocket of every tax-payer. Via this letter to your newspaper I am calling for the support of our townspeople in demanding the resignation of the Gang of Four, that means The Mayor, The Deputy Mayor, The Leader and The Deputy Leader who have collectively brought about this catastrophic situation.  Help put an end to this Shamocracy that has taken root in our magnificent Melksham.

Sweep us clean or sweep us all out

Martin Pain

Independent Councillor, Melksham Town Council

Respect council staff’s right to privacy

Dear Sir,

Melksham Town Council has always ensured that internal staffing matters are held in the strictest confidence to protect the privacy of its staff. This practice ensures that due process is carried out and that Councillors are not compromised in the event that they are required to hear an appeal against a decision. However, recently, certain Councillors have deviated from these standards and have made the public and press aware of private staffing matters. They have openly identified the staff involved and have now compromised their positions as Councillors.

As a member of the HR Sub-committee I find it rather disturbing that some Councillors, even after being advised of the strictly confidential nature of matters under discussion, still decided to make these matters known to the public. In no other workplace would this kind of behaviour be acceptable. I can assure the public, which has been confirmed with Councillors at a recent meeting, that the correct HR processes have been followed and the Town Council has been guided by, and implemented the advice of, its specialist HR consultants every step of the way.

Our staff deserve the utmost respect and are entitled to have any matters dealt with in private; that is their right. Councillors have no grounds whatsoever to make these matters public and doing so is a clear breach of the Councillors’ code of conduct. I can only conclude that their reasoning behind making this confidential matter public is to turn it into a political point scoring exercise.

I’m politely asking all Councillors and members of the public to respect Council staff’s right to privacy and allow for this matter to be resolved in a positive and private manner. These are my personal thoughts and not that of Melksham Town Council.

Cllr Vanessa Fiorelli

No war zone at town council meeting

Dear Sir,

 I would like to make the following comments; firstly I would like to thank the largest attendance of the public to a MTC meeting that has occurred during my term of office, shows people do care well done. 

The meeting gave us much needed info previously not disclosed, naturally would have liked more, some of it created more, questions were being allowed to be asked and given and answered, some  being given at a later date,  

The latter part was left to the members of HR. The others including myself voluntary left the meeting, 

I would like to personally thank all for their conduct during the meeting, Certainly didn’t  feel that I was in the middle of a war zone.   

Cllr Clive Jeffries

Get on with serving the people of Melksham

Dear Sir,

I am very disappointed at what is going on with Melksham Town Council at the moment. Just when we need everyone to be working together to get through the pandemic, they all seem to be at loggerheads with one another. Some seem to be on the council purely for an ego trip. Our community deserves better than this. 

I say enough, now enough. Remember what you were elected for – to represent the best interests of the people of Melksham. So please please stop this farce and get on with the job of serving the people of Melksham.  

Sue Mortimer

Concerned resident

What a mess

Dear Sir

Former Lib Dem Councillors are now Independent. Another councillor resigns. The clerk and her deputy suspended. What a mess the council seems to be in.

What a good job the merge between the town council and Melksham Without Parish Council was blocked. I’m sure the electors of Melksham Town will form their verdict at next May’s election.

Councillor Terry Chivers (Melksham Without)

Thank you to our true community heroes

Dear Sir,

Several people have contacted us over the past couple of weeks expressing surprise at a leaflet being pushed through their letterboxes in which the Liberal Democrats on the Town Council appear to be claiming the credit for the recent Melksham Community Support Scheme.

For the avoidance of doubt, may we confirm that this volunteer-led scheme was in no way associated with any political party. It was a scheme jointly run by Age Friendly Melksham, the Melksham Area Board, Melksham Without Parish Council and Melksham Town Council. 

What’s more, despite being the controlling faction on the town council this group have been more interested in pursuing pathetic personal grudges over the weeks since lockdown was eased than spending any time considering how the scheme has worked or thanking those involved.

It is a fact, that although Melksham Town Council has met on at least five occasions since 1st June, not once has the MCS scheme been discussed and the town council has never recorded its thanks to the amazing team of volunteers who delivered the project, or to its own staff team for helping make it all happen.

So may we take this opportunity to say that, at least, some of the councillors on Melksham Town Council are incredibly grateful to our staff team and colleagues from Melksham Without Parish Council, and to the phenomenal team of volunteers who did such an amazing job over the past 4 months. THANK YOU TO YOU ALL – YOU ARE ALL COMMUNITY HEROES.

We are delighted that the project is continuing to deliver for our residents, whilst in many other towns they have now closed their support projects.

Thank you again to everyone who made this project the outstanding success it has been and will continue to be into the future.

Cllr Jon Hubbard, Cllr Martin Pain, Cllr Clive Jefferies, Cllr Sue Brown, Cllr Mike Sankey, Cllr Richard Wiltshire

We need to start working together

Dear Sir,

Am I the only one to think it strange that some councillors are trying so hard not to answer questions about what they have been up to?

I think that sometimes they forget that it is our money they are spending, and if there are questions about if they are doing that correctly surely these should be asked.

What a shame that rather than answer these questions these councillors shut down debate and throw other members out of a meeting for having the nerve to ask the same unanswered question three times. I think we need more councillors like Jon Hubbard, who are standing up for Melksham, and some of the others need to think about moving on.

It’s time we all started working Together for Melksham.

Jack Oatley,

Melksham.

Stop! A plea to town councillors!

Dear Sir,

‘Fie, fie! Unknit that threatening unkind brow, and dart not scornful glances from those eyes, to wound thy ‘voters’ who art thy ‘governors’, which in no sense is meet or amiable. A ‘Council’ moved is like a fountain troubled – muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty; and while it is so, none so dry or thirsty will deign to sip or touch one drop of it!’

Councillors, please read and digest this paraphrased, albeit sexist speech from ‘The Taming of the Shrew’ – Act V, Scene 2.

During the war we led reasonably normal lives, coped with bombing, rationing, evacuation, but attended school, cuddled, visited friends, had holidays, etc. Corona pandemic has brought severe deprivation – hard to manage!

Melksham has so far come through this crisis with minimal problems by everyone pulling together –  apart from idiots, sadly, mostly among the younger generation who will be paying for this for years, but cannot see why getting slewed out of one’s skull before bashing another bloke’s in, is neither acceptable nor the solution!

However, what sort of example is being set by Town Council members, elected by us to act sensibly on our behalf.  A quote from the wonderful ‘Genevieve’ – ‘Hawling like brooligans’!  Yes, it IS correct!  Ladies and gentlemen, I am appalled! You are behaving like small children who need their legs slapping! You appear to have a major problem  – so DEAL WITH IT!

I was delighted when the Council abandoned politics for ‘Independence’. Long overdue I felt. I believe individuals best equipped to run local affairs should be elected regardless of their politics.  I had such high hopes! Now dashed! And Councillors reporting ‘matters to the Police’ and News correspondents with political scores to settle do not help. 

I beg you – PLEASE! Grow up, Stand up and Stick up in a civilised manner for Melksham voters who elected you, before we tumble into, ‘The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns’.  More Shakespeare!

Pauline Baker,

Melksham.

87-year old Survivor!

Bring this insanity to an end

Dear Sir,

Once again, I have felt compelled to write to express my dismay at the last Melksham Town Council meeting held on the 5th of August. Fortunately, there was no abusive swearing this time but just as a pendulum swings, the disorganised chaos of the last one was replaced with what felt like orchestrated tyranny.

The il-liberal group of ex-democrats were clearly not prepared to entertain questions from the public having first tried to gloss over public participation entirely. When it did eventually happen, public speakers were clipped using the microphone, preventing difficult questions. We were all eventually removed for the closed session in the second part (which was perfectly right) but this was followed by the removal of Cllr Hubbard in what appears to have been a prearranged plan to stop him challenging their recent behaviour.

This council is no longer fit for purpose. It should be a happy place that works to improve our town, supports local people and helps residents navigate their way to finding solutions to community problems. Instead, it has morphed into a malignant mass of poisonous personality politics, a defensive and erroneous leadership backed by drones doubling down on every wrong move. 

Good people are being lost from our council and whilst the time for it to stop has passed, it is not too late. If only two councillors stop backing them, their edifice will collapse. This is the time for independent minded action and I am calling on those councillors supporting this chaos to put town above politics and bring this insanity to an end.

Cllr Phil Alford,

Melksham Without North