The Wall Of Silence RE: The Affairs of Selby Area Internal Drainage Board

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Dear Selby District Council,
We, as piece workers of Selby Area Internal Drainage Board, must be unique in the free world, this because our real terms wage rates have gone down in every year since 1984. This came about as a result of a perverse decision taken in 1984, to deny the Board’s hardest workers, the piece workers, the “Staff” cost of living annual wage award for 19 years, this whilst management and weekly paid workers have always continued to enjoy same.

For many years I protested this treatment but all fell on “Deaf ears” until, in 2013 a decision was made to ask me, as being the piece workers’ spokesman, to “Put in a claim” for the Board to consider. No other worker was included in this offer.

There are only two ways in which these two decisions could have been made. Either they were made by Board members at a full meeting, in which the Board, as a legal entity, knows of these decisions, or that they were made by a group of private individuals, in which case the Board knows nothing of either of these decisions.

What I have always asked to know, then is, did the Board, as a legal entity, know and sanction these two crucial decisions, or did others take the Board’s powers upon themselves?

Here then, is the question which no person in authority wants to have to answer. The first obvious question here is: if the Board did indeed ratify these decisions why do they not tell me so, indeed, why did they not tell me so fourteen years ago, at the outset of my investigations? Rather than do this, they say nothing. This is why I here turn to all “Overview” authorities, DEFRA first and foremost, because they, and dozens of other authorities need only make one five minute phone call to the Board’s management to establish the truth here.

However, in fourteen years I have asked this question of all these authorities, and found that no one dare put this to the Board. My MP and the District Auditor refuse to act in any way, but merely tell me to contact the police if I think anything is wrong here. In this way they substitute the judgement of a manual labourer for that of their access to the best of legal advice. In their turn, the police, the Police and Crime Commissioner, the Local Government Ombudsman and DEFRA all tell me that “This is a civil matter between you and your employer alone,” this despite the fact that the question itself is designed to ascertain as to whether my employer, the Board as a legal entity, even knows of my very existence. All other authorities say “This is not our business,” all media publicity is denied, and such are the means that the “Establishment” employs to protect its own.

That the Board and every other authority would rather that I made a “Claim” rather than be told the truth must surely be enough to inform anyone with a shred of common decency that something is very wrong with the way in which public bodies are allowed to operate. This is a much bigger matter than what happens in the conduct of the affairs of one tiny public body, rather it is symptomatic of fundamental failings re accountability. Indeed, all that can be assumed from this is that there are now no “Checks and balances” re the doings of any public body.

Because I am, in effect, “Sent to Coventry” by all whose duty it is to help me, I take this opportunity of questioning them, or their superiors, on the common forum of this FOI website. All of the authorities I question here have been sent a dossier of evidence at some time in the past fourteen years, and have a duty of care to the public at large. All have the ability to know the answer to the following question instantly, if they put the right of the public to know the answer before the need to keep this matter a secret. The question is, then, “Did the Board, as a legal entity, know of and sanction the two decisions ie: to deny the piece workers any annual wage award, and to offer me a “Claim,” or did others take the Board’s powers upon themselves in doing this?”

I ask for this question to be answered in consideration of the evidence as at: https://theselbysecret.weebly,com marked as (1) is the Board’s Clerk’s “View” of the Board’s minutes which shows complete omission of piece worker treatment 82 to 03, the time of the piece workers’ deprivation. (2) is one of the “Claim” requests to me. (3) explains how the actuality of piece worker treatment 84 to 03 was such as could not be reduced to any contract form for the Board to consider, and (4) and (5) evidence this.

The answers to these questions have become, over the years, “The Selby Secret.” The “Wall of silence” which has kept this secret, has ruined the lives of some of the poorest men in England, whilst being maintained by the most powerful. We should all ask why.

Yours faithfully,

Paul Crooks

Freedom of information administration, Selby District Council

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Danielle Sheldon

 

Freedom of information administration

Freedom of Information Administration

 

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Dear Mr Crooks

 

Please find attached a response to your request.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Caroline Fleming

Senior Solicitor

Selby District Council

 

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