Readers' Letter: Placing the mining wheel

At a previous meeting the clerk of the council had informed the council during talks between herself and the Heritage organisation the organisation would pay for maintenance and insurance for the wheel wherever it was placed on Hatfield Town Council land. Then, some weeks later, because there was so much dilly and dallying, we were told the half wheel had gone somewhere else and another one would be sourced by Hargreaves, the latest the clerk had told the councillors was there was half a wheel coming from the Northeast! So we were going to have a memorial placed on a children's play area that had no connection with our town! Talk about disorganisation!

This meeting was called for yesterday and it is not clear by whom, nor the reason for the meeting, but the very fact that non members of the council were given a vote by the chair, who happens to be a Hatfield ward councillor is quite concerning and completely contradictory to the legal process of holding a public meeting where the right of the members of the public have a vote and all the members of the public have the right to attend. The clerk is supposed to advise the council on legal matters but obviously failed to do her job on this occasion. It was not advertised as a town meeting, which it should have been and there was no agenda.

It must be the new openness and transparency policy operated by Hatfield Town Council. No votes for those representing the public nor the public themselves, just a minimum attendance by those all for the land being used for something it was not meant for.

If only those attending yesterday would get up on a weekend morning and clear the dog muck from the football pitches so the teams can play football I would have a greater understanding of their need and desire to place the half wheel there. They don't, the Miners Welfare is of no interest to any of those attending yesterday apart from prime building land.

Anne Rutherford

Doncaster DN7 4AB