Spooner Row Message Board

Such a shame the council has come to this, it could have done so much for the community but constant arguing and not moving things forward due to one councillor has destroyed the council by the sounds of it. Hopefully something can be done to get them back on track. It looks like a complete shambles from the outside!  

I find this message board very useful, especially when I'm away from home and its not a cesspit as the councillor fosater has stated.  The rogue councillor always seems to be at the heart of all the problems and the council needs to get their act together. This just makes local councils look a a joke.

Many thanks for letting me post on the board.

Comment from Webstation:

Thank you, Christian, for posting the link to this interesting article from the EDP. It is well worth a read.
Cllr Robert Foster has defamed this Message Board by claiming it to be a "cesspit". I was given no right of reply by the EDP to explain this independent Message Board, which is moderated responsibly and with impartiality.

I would agree, and I too was disappointed seeing this comment in the EDP Article. This message board has been and continues to be an asset to the Spooner Row community.
I've hesitated to use it because I'm not too keen on the 'anonymous' posting, so would agree somewhat with his position on this point only.

I regularly attend the council meetings as a member of the public and would urge others to do the same so that they can experience first-hand what goes on.

Comment from Anonymous:

Perfectly summed up by a response on twitter!
- they really need to grow up. parish councils, if run properly, can be a real force for good in a community.

A person could come to the opinion that we don't really have a working council anymore. It was originally seven councillors that were elected.
If you exclude the one co-opted member on the board currently, we are now down to only three councillors present that were democratically elected by us that you could ask to 'grow up'.

• Cllr Sue Hewitson (Chair and also member of the Village Hall Committee)
• Cllr John Morton
• Cllr Robert Foster

As a point of interest, if you examine the election leaflet that was distributed (a copy of this leaflet is shown on the EDP Webpage) you will see that the community are instructed to vote only for Foster and Morton.
This is so that 'The truth will come out' and that the council should not be under the control of the Village Hall committee. (The idea that a voluntary village group should want to control the council is nonsense in my opinion).

I know Sue feels that she is being continuously attacked in the meetings (if I may, I intend to post a further message on this board detailing this within the forthcoming week).
Should she resign because she cannot continue, then the leaflet (and the writer of it) will have achieved their aims.

The fact that two men cannot run a council intended for seven participants is of no consequence it seems.

Christian Shadlock

The EDP report reminded us all of the Foster and Morton election leaflet complaining about the village hall committee wanting to control the council which caused division in the village. Think about it, who is it that really wants to control the council? Both are now on the council. We need the Chair more than ever to hold her ground and remain in place. 

Many months later, Stephen Ward's resignation statement still applies. What a great shame we lost such a capable and sensible founding councillor because of this continued pettiness.  

https://spoonerrow.activeboard.com/t69246178/cllr-stephen-wards-statement-read-out-to-the-community-counc/

Are you sure about that ?!

This message board is not a “ Cesspit ” as Mr Foster refers it to it is the only way people of the community can vent their frustration and anger on the subject of a councillor who has his own agenda and has nothing positive to say about the Village Hall Committee or the community as a whole .There doesn’t seem any external support from the likes of South Norfolk etc in dealing with crazy situation so where else would the community go?

(Thank you Andy for your kind words of support.

Webstation)

-- Reply by webstation on Monday 18th of September 2023 03:30:15 PM

The article says Clr Foster had access to his colleague's emails. What about their privacy when undertaking council business or private email conversations with the public? It took South Norfolk Council to make them aware of this setup. I thought data protection was there to prevent this type of thing?

Fair right of reply.

It is quite amusing to me that, at the last council meeting, Cllr Foster suggested to 'not shoot the messenger' when he was telling the group of the opinions given by members of other councils.
But when it comes to this message board he attacks it as 'Cesspit'.

Maybe he should start taking note of the opinions of the Spooner Row residents that he is meant to represent rather than 'shooting the messenger' of them.

Mr Foster renewed his criticism, however . . .
“I have seen a whisper campaign against me and the attacks on the forum are ongoing" he said.

How many more councillors resigning naming him directly as the cause of them leaving is it going to take?
(None of these councillors will be replaced, by the way. Who would want to volunteer their time and effort freely, only to face such negativity?)
How much more public money is going to be wasted in retraining new councillors and to the Clerk's paid time in dealing with this mess?
What exactly did he expect?

Christian Shadlock

I think it's worthwhile reinforcing a few points so Spooner Row residents are really clear about this.

In Cllr Foster's remarks in referring to the Community Council's website that he was instrumental in setting up, but now has sole control over.

“I was not going to give up control of the website without proper assurances that certain individuals would not turn it into a cesspit like the Spooner Row message board had become,”

Two important points:

1) This 'Denial of website access' fiasco originally happened in February of this year. At that time there was no mention of the reason(s) why he would release control over the website.
This is brand new information. He's never mentioned this before. He would not give a reason when asked at that time.

2) The website was created for use by our Council,  for the benefit of Spooner Row residents and (most importantly) was paid for using public money . . . YOUR money.

IT'S NOT HIS TO REFUSE TO GIVE UP!

And, as was mentioned by recently co-opted Cllr Phlip Price in the last meeting, it certainly isn't his to refuse to give up just because he has an issue with Free Speech.

Who does he think he is???
What opinion does he think residents are going to have over this sort of behaviour???

The second point is more for honesty.

Comment by Webstation in the news article :
"The messageboard does not attack him, and he has the opportunity to respond to any comments posted about his behaviour.

In fairness, Councillors have been requested not to reply to, or post articles on this message board so he doesn't have that opportunity.
Whether he/they are doing this under a pseudonym or using the anonymous tag is unknown.

Christian Shadlock

(Dear Christian,

Thank you for your post. Just to clarify your last point, it is anonymous messages only that the Council has a policy not to respond. Posts put forward by named individuals such as Cllr Stephen Ward, other Councillors can reply and have done so. The late Cllr Halls was a regular contributor to doing this. I often remind Cllr Foster that he has a right to reply, that is only fair.

Webstation)

-- Reply by webstation on Tuesday 19th of September 2023 02:08:22 PM

Councillor Robert Foster needs to give the council the codes to run its website with immediate effect.  If not, then all expenditures for creating a new website should be invoiced to him. Why should we, the taxpayers of Spooner Row, Suton, and Wattlefield pay for his immaturity and unwillingness to work as part of a team?

If he doesn't pay then I hope the council collects what is due to us via the Small Claims Court.

Perhaps a few of us taxpayers should attend the next meeting and ask that the website funded by our money be handed back

to the community??! And maybe ask for a resignation at the same

time. If he really values the community he is in the council for he should listen to our requests. 

The second YouTube video has been uploaded, I have just listened to it and would encourage others to do so as well. The council have now lost the RFO, again due to Robs behaviour. the whole 30 minutes (that everyone had voluntarily given their time up for) is rob complaining about the word exemplary being used to describe the audit, claiming there are issues but not really putting anything forward apart from the fact he is spitting his dummy out because one of his proposals didn’t get through. it sounds like the RFO and others would be happy to stay in the council if Rob left, he really needs to go.