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With the temperatures soaring in our little village and predictions of the hottest summer for decades, most of the villagers are looking forward to bbq's, garden parties and evenings in the sun reading good books drinking great wine  (well at least I am!).

Whilst this weather continues, Harwell is likely to continue to lead the pollution charts in England.  We are consistently a top 20 entry and suffer greatly from airbourne pollution and sound pollution from the A34.  We beat places like - Hull, Sheffield, and Birmingham - all perceived by some to be 'polluted'.  For those outside the village, the A34 cuts around the outside of the village and is a fast dual carriageway link between the M4 and M40.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the out of date Parish Council will slowly recognise the importance of this pollution in our daily lives.  The particulate pollution cannot be good for anyone, and especially bad for the elderly or those with Asthma; and the sound pollution spoils our idyllic village and keeps some awake at night.

And if the Parish Council finally recognise this, then perhaps, just perhaps, they will use the Didcot Development to ensure that we have full sound proofing, and ensure that any relief road takes us into account.

btw... and I'm sure this is an aside, did anyone see any of the planned relief roads going past a councillors house?

One can't help thinking that the stuffy old Parish Council have yet again put themselves in a very embarrassing position. They have done what they could to remove the old Parish Clerk and the battle has gone to the court and an employment tribunal. From what we hear, Mrs Hollister (now ex-Clerk) has won every step of the way and that June Blisset and Stuart Lilly (the chief architect's of Mrs Hollisters removal) have been backing down and running scared. We have also been led to believe that the employment tribunal threw out the Parish Council's claim's against Mrs Hollister and that it's now just a fight for the amount of compensation.

Stuart Lilly you'll remember has been embattled since joining the Parish Council with blunder after blunder. He has recently taken the vice-Chair of the Parish Council. One could even assume that June Blissett knows she is going down and is looking to place some of the blame onto an obviously gullible fall-guy.

So now it seems that June Blisset and Stuart Lilly have no where to go with the issue on the treatment of Mrs Hollister. It must have cost thousands of our money for them to defend their own little empires and actions, and there is no doubt that  it will cost many thousands more – either in legal fee's or in a huge settlement fee.  This could well cost the Parish one third of it's annual budget.  As one member of the community commented 'That's a lot of our money to spend on one of their friends'.

We feel sorry for Cllr June Blissett, Cllr Jim Mulford, and Cllr Stuart Lilly.  All three are verbally very active against this site.  They cannot put anything in writing as we would hold them accountable for their words.  So for the moment they rely upon unaccountable talk (as we have said many times before - cowards).

The Parish Council did attempt to close this site down using legal action.

The Parish Council did not contest the facts on this site (as they are true), but instead were worried that the site damaged their reputation.

So if I get this right - we paid our money into the Parish Council's pot of money.  The unelected Parish Council then used this money to prop up their reputation.  Wow - that's very bad.  I wonder where the meeting minutes are discussing this?

The Parish Council won nothing from this action, we are stil here, our words have not changed, and as some have said, "their reputations are still in tatters." What a waste of our money.

One good thing did come from it though - the Parish Council aimed it's legal action at a member of our community.  At the time he had nothing to do with this site, but he is now a keen supporter and sponsor.

Ever since this site has been here we have been holding the Parish Council to account for its actions, and for the actions done in our name.  This has caused stunning and humiliating set of u-turns from the unelected Parish Council.

You can just imagine the shock on their faces as they suddenly realised that they were accountable for their actions.

So slowly the u-turns continue.

You can now attend the Parish Council meetings without an invite.  You still cannot ask questions unless they are blessed by Cllr June Blissett.  You still cannot hear all of the meeting as they will take some items into closed session.

What do these people think they are dealing with?  Why should information about our community be withheld from us?   One would assume that these closed sessions are not documented (nothing appears in the minutes).  One could further imagine that dodgy handshakes take place in these sessions.

We cannot for one minute think that any of this is in the communities best interests. Of course they are only there to serve our community - have they forgotten this?

The other u-turn we noticed this month that warrants a blog mention is the creation of an occasional (and only during working hours when most of the village are unavailable) Q&A session.  This is of course yet another way of avoiding actual documentation.  By informally discussing issues with you they do not have to put anything down in print, and by avoiding the documentation they are not held accountable for what is said. 

Cowards.  Document it.  Put it in writing.  Be held accountable.  Or do you have something to hide?

Lets clear up two things on this site as they are important and will stop a lot of lies:

Emma Hollister (the now ex-Parish Council Clerk) who has been complaining to the Parish Council Chairman about verbal and other abuse from many of the current unelected Parish Councillors has finally been forced out of her administrative position in the Parish Council. 

In what some might see as either a mass outbreak of forgetfulness, and others as collusion, the Parish Chairman and a few of the strutting B listers removed her from her position for misconduct.  All because she sent an email, and the B listers 'forgot' that they asked her to do so.   No honestly - thats was it - they are pathetic.

And of course there are no surprises that in a totally biased and not-in-our-communities-best-interests move, Jim Mulford and June Blissett's friend has taken over the position.    The new clerk is of course the old clerk - well the one before Emma Hollister.  She left several years ago in a tantrum over working conditions.  But now, for the moment at least, she is back.

We have asked Emma to write a document for this web site, and we hope she does - it is always good to see the truth and not hear the lies.

And finally for today, we applaud our sponsor who is under constant verbal threat from the ever wagging tongue of June Blissett and the B-list gang.  The 'I'll get him' attitude of the few show just how much they have to hide.

However, he (our sponsor) should seek comfort from the praise and good will that we have heard from all but one of the villagers.  One also has to wonder how long it will take the old guard to realise their position is untenable, and that they represent no one but themselves.

Check out The Blog Debate, which hopes to open the discussion.

We have a list of the Parish Council Members, what we think is broken in the village, and how to fix it.  We also have a short section on drugs in the village.

I can think of no better way of using the free time of the senior generation to do good for the community, introduce a sense of consistency, and to create an environment that we can all be proud of.

I have known many people that have served their communities with home help, the odd shopping run, or even just a coffee once a week.  This helps to create a sense of community, and is something to be proud of.  It is a shame that this behaviour seems to have lost its way with the baby boom 55-70 year old generation.

For them it does seem to be a lot about personal gain, and not personal pride.

I don't mean everyone of course, but there are always the selfish few that are out there to build empires, and gain a sort of uneasy sense of moral high ground over the rest of the community.    These people tend to look at half-empty glasses; are bullies; seek 'power'; and flock together (as individually they are very weak).

It is very sad to see that these people existing within our community in Harwell.  Some have latched onto positions that allow them to 'represent' the rest of us; some just bemoan everything we have; but all are stuck in  the past, stubbornly refusing to move forward in life.

We just hope that they look at their current lives and think - what will people think of me after I'm gone?   what do people think about me now?   how will I be judged?

Thanks for visiting our site, and please read the other blog pages.