For those who were not there you missed the following statement from Richard Waud which I have chosen to publish in full without comment.
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On Friday evening last week, this hall was filled with 80 people enjoying Shiptonthorpe Village Hall’s Elvis night. The event raised over 700 pounds towards the running of our village hall, and we donated the proceeds of the raffle to children in need.
Our monthly pub nights are always sold out, as are most of the events we promote. And the overriding reflections from people who support our village hall is how lucky we are to have things going on in our village. I think 95% of village residents of this lovely village are dismayed and disgusted at how Shiptonthorpe is portrayed on social media. There is never any mention of folk in the field, summer solstice, Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre, Christmas in Shiptonthorpe. We’ve put the tree up today. But that’s the price we have to pay for sad people who have nothing positive to say about society our village or others.
Of course, we must remember that if Robert Ducker and Catherine Simpson had their way, the village hall would be in a very different situation. While trying to negotiate the new lease in 2023, this hall would have become a white elephant. Trying to reduce the terms of the lease from 40 years to 20 years to 25 years to 15 years to 10 years. Who knows?
Increasing the rent after a few years. Documentary evidence to support everything that I am saying. Imposing non-residents of the village onto the Village Hall Management Committee’s trustees, insisting in the lease that residents must be given priority over commercial events. This would have destroyed our finances and the investment we put back into the hall, and maybe our hall would have been made unviable. Of course, that’s what they wanted. None of this is pie in the sky, but all fact, and we haven documentation to prove everything I am saying.
Why is someone called Debbie Foster contacting our solicitors to discuss the lease. She is neither a resident of the parish or a parish councillor. I could go on, but I know this is history.
But how can we trust these people not to behave in this way again? Not working for the village, but pursuing their own interests and prejudices. Anti-village and anti-village hall.
The botched and flawed negotiations to create a new lease have cost the residents dear, nearly 5,000 pound to date on lease negotiations, and on top of that, over 2 1/2 thousand pound for the cost of an election. Our village hall would have become unmanageable and unsustainable. That was probably their plan. A vendetta against me possibly, but really a vendetta against our village.
No art, no yoga, no flower club, no Shiptonthorpe community theatre, as the hall had to be available at all times in case a resident might want to use it. It would become a white elephant, unable to pay its bills and fall into disrepair. This was what the Parish Council of 2023 tried to do to our village.
Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre with nearly 50 members and open to everyone irrespective of age and ability and no charges for membership fees would have ceased to exist. Shiptonthorpe Community Theatre provides in the region of 6,000 pound a year towards the running of our village hall. It provides a place of fun and friendship and learning.
In the past month, we have enjoyed theatre trips to York, Hull, and tomorrow evening, 16 of us are going to Beverley. When the present village hall management committee took over running of the hall, we had under 10,000 pounds in the account. Today, we have just under 50,000 pounds. It used to do a summer BBQ and a raffle and a pantomime, but very little else. Today we have nearly 600 followers on social media and there is something happening every month.
Why don’t social media mention folk in the field, summer solstice, pantomime, vicar of Dibley? Perhaps they can tell us.
The village has recently lost some excellent councillors over the past few weeks and much of this is to blame and put down to bullying by fellow councillors, not those present tonight, may I add. Tim Bowron, who has done so much for our village and its residents, have founder member of folk in the field and a valued member of the Village Hall Management Committee.
The bully boy tactics that were allowed at a recent parish council meeting resulted in the loss of Sarah Smith, Ted Bowron and Neil Scott. They were not prepared to be inundated by constant emails from a fellow councillor.
I personally have suffered abuse and insults as the Chair of Village Hall Management Committee by a handful of villagers, some of whom are in this room tonight. I recently received an e-mail from a resident saying to me that Neil Scott, Tim Bowron, Ted Bowron, Richard Waring, Sarah Smith were nothing more than Councillor Gough’s lapdogs. What sort of behaviour is this in our lovely village?
We have a village hall that is second to none and enhances village life in booking loads. In a recent successful grant application, Giffey referred to our village hall as a beacon of success providing a place of inclusivity for our village and surrounding areas.
Let social media and the few try to cause divisions in our community and hopefully the sad people in our village will accept that they are in a minority and the other 95 in a majority.””
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In response former council chair until 2023 Robert Ducker said:
I didn’t expect this from Richard Waud. Half of what he said is not true, it’s in his head.
We never once, and it’s written down, we never once were going to put the rent up, we never once had a thing against the Village Hall. Richard Waud does a good job at the Village Hall. There’s no problem, I’ve problem with Richard Waud with the Village Hall. You do a good job, but why go on about the (previous) parish council, we were going to charge a peppercorn rent it always was and it always will be because that’s how we fixed it and it’s all got out of hand.
It’s in his head and he’s got it in for me.
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