Letter: Dismissal of Parish Clerk Is a Disgrace

Published on: 6 May, 2021
Updated on: 6 May, 2021

From: Alan Cheesman

former chairman of Normandy Parish Council

in response to: Normandy Parish Clerk Sacked After Critical Audit Report

This is an absolute disgrace. Leslie gave 18 years of exemplary service to Normandy, without which the village would not be such a wonderful place to live.

Like Leslie, my wife Val and I did not know he could not stand for the parish council. We thought, as he did, that if he got elected he could resign as clerk.

Val and I were with Leslie in his office (not a shed) because we have concerns about his health. This despicable action by certain individuals is not helping. Mr Bilbe said to Leslie: “I have a letter for you.” He gave no explanation and left before Leslie had a chance to open it. It was a good job we were present.

As for the internal audit, the last parish council prepared for it up until the end of September 2020. If that had been done no problems would have evolved, not up to March 2021. Due to the extremely busy year, dealing with all the additional work involved with keeping the villagers safe during Covid, no checking of the documents was undertaken. This was to have been undertaken during February 2021 (after the PC had been destroyed by certain individuals and their cohorts) for the end of year audit.

Therefore the only ones to blame for the audit problems are the interim council, who did not check prior to the submission by the interim clerk.

That’s all I have to say on the matter.

Responses to Letter: Dismissal of Parish Clerk Is a Disgrace

Jim Allen Reply

May 6, 2021 at 8:31 am

Surely the person accepting the nomination should know the rules and should have explained the rules, so not have accepted the nomination in the first place?
David Bilbe Reply

May 6, 2021 at 9:22 am

I note the comments in the above letter. In my view, to suggest that an interim council, imposed because of the catastrophic breakdown of the previous one, with an interim clerk, can fix the ineptitude of the past years, as clearly stated in the audit, is bizarre.

The matters are deep-rooted, significant and require systematic attention and that is what the new council will attend to following the election.

David Bilbe was the interim chair of Normandy Parish Council