See also

 

1a. Alan Billings, South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner: Complaint
1b. Same content as (1) but in single column
1c. Alan Billings: Ichtheology, the Billingsgate Challenge
1d. Police and Ethics Panels
1e. S. Yorks Police: IOPC
1g. Alan Billings: National / International Page
1h. Capability in education and policing
1i. Complaints-pcc-panels.htm
1j. 'Treating people properly'

This page and the pages listed above will be revised to exclude duplicated material and to achieve other benefits

2. Christian religion: criticism
3. Arise! Church Guide
4. Abuse, safeguarding and the Churches
5. Street Pastors Guide

6. Anti-woke supporters of Christian belief
7.Churches, donations, employment

 

About this page


This is the newest page of the site.  It will be revised and extended.

'm making a complaint against Alan Billings, the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner. The body which considers complaints and comes to a decision is the Police and Crime Panel. On this page, I'll be giving background material on the Panel, and, also, the Independent Ethics Panel. Much of the material will be in the form of profiles of members of the two panels. Some profiles have already been published, below. I have absolutely no expectation that the Police and Crime Panel would be able and willing to do justice to the issues and would be able to assess the complaint adequately. This is for two  reasons: most importantly, the powers of Police and Crime Panels are very limited in this area. The other reason is to do with complex issues which will become much clearer, I'm sure, despite their complexity, as the work I've started continues. The minutes of the Police and Crime Panel are a source of valuable information in this regard. So far, none of the information is included below, but it will be.

 

Already, there's a great deal of information on the site, for example, my earlier page on the PCC and the two panels   includes material on the failure of the Police and Crime Panel to react adequately when Alan Billings was criticized severely in connection with his dismissal of the Chief Constable David Crompton. It contains material on sexual abuse in the Churches and Alan Billings' failure to give the issue the attention it deserves. It contains material on 'hate crime.' Alan Billings has actively promoted a particular course of action which can leave South Yorkshire Police very vulnerable. Pursuit of 'hate crime' has to depend on evidence, which takes time to collect - it seems that this need for evidence before action has not been appreciated sufficiently by Alan Billings or South Yorkshire Police. The cases described in the column to the right illustrate some possible consequences of ignoring the need for evidence. This issue has already been discussed on the site but it will need much more thorough discussion - even though Alan Billings seems to have ignored the realities, I think it's very, very likely that he will not be able to evade these realities indefinitely.


Other pages - the pages 1a ... 1e listed in the first column of the page -  contain much more extensive background material relevant to  my complaints against a Sergeant of South Yorkshire Police and against the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner. Most of the background material in the second column of the page is new. Most of it is concerned with the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), the Police and Crime Panel and the Independent Ethics Panel rather than South Yorkshire Police. Some of it is very striking, I think, providing, unexpected insights into the Commissioner and the panels.

In this first column of the page, I intend to provide material which is basic but important to me: documentation on the progress of my complaints against the PCC and the Sergeant of South Yorkshire Police. I think that a great deal of the email evidence to be added will also be found very striking, giving further insights into the waywardness to be found in  South Yorkshire Police, the PCC panels and the PCC. However, the record on this page and the other pages reveals behaviour which is often grotesque rather than simply wayward.

Highlighted names in the lists below indicate members of the Police and Crime Panel and the Independent Ethics Panel with profiles already published on the page. Clicking on a name gives a link to the profile in the column to the right.

As with all the panels which appear on this site, I'm always willing to receive requests for removal of a profile or modification of a profile. I'll never agree to demands to remove a panel or modify a panel. In deciding whether to include a profile or not, I take into account not just the utility of a profile, for the significant information which a panel can provide, and for many other reasons, I take into account very different factors. For example, I found out that a Church of England vicar had been suffering from very severe health problems. I had no wish to add to his difficulties and decided not to publish a profile - the decision was a clear-cut one. It would have been wrong to publish a profile in these circumstances.

Further materials on profiles on the page About this site.

Members of the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Panel

 

Councillor Rukhsana Haleem 
Labour, Chair, Rotherham MBC

Councillor Clive Pickering
Labour, Vice-Chair, Barnsley MBC

 

Councillor Tim Baum-Dixon
Conservative, Rotherham MBC

 

Councillor Roger Davison
Liberal Democrats, Sheffield City Council

 

Councillor Tony Downing
Labour, Sheffeld City Council

 

Councillor Peter Garbutt
Green Party, Sheffield City Council

 

Councillor Sue Knowles
Labour, Doncaster MBC

 

Councillor Ruth Milsom
Labour, Sheffield City Council

 

Councillor Janine Moyes
Labour, Barnsley MBC

 

Councillor Cynthia Ransome
Conservative, Doncaster MBC

 

Warren Carratt
Independent Co-opted Member

 

There will be no further material on this page (or any other page of the site) on Councillor Janine Moyes and on William Carratt, the Independent Co-opted Member, for reasons to do with earlier provision of information.

 

Members of the Independent Ethics Panel

 

Ann Macaskill (Chair)
Michael Lewis
Janet Wheatley
Mick Hood
Sheila Wright
Alice Raven
Elizabeth Smart

 

 A copy of the profile of Professor Ann Macaskill is provided in my page on Universities, in the second column of the page, the section Sheffield Hallam University.

 

I intend to add a profile of Professor Elizabeth Smart to this page and my page on Universities. My main source of information will be minutes of the Independent Ethics Panel. The page 'Meetings, Agendas and Minutes'

https://southyorkshire-pcc.gov.uk/what-we-do/iep/meetings-agendas-minutes/

 

provides minutes for the meetings of the Independent Ethics Panel. Minutes are provided for the meeting of 16 December, 2020, the date when Elizabeth Smart seems to have begun to attend meetings as a member of the panel, but there are no records of the minutes of any later meeting. This deficiency is one that needs to be addressed. Until it is addressed, publication of a profile will have to be delayed.

 

The Billingsgate Challenge for Panel members

 

This is very similar to the 'Billingsgate Challenge,' on my page Billingsgate. The questions on the Billingsgate page will in general be longer - sometimes much longer - than any of the questions here, although in both cases, there will often be explanatory material and information to accompany the questions, generally much longer than the actual questions. Some of the questions here will relate to the Billingsgate questions. I'd be very surprised if any of the questions, Billingsgate questions or Panel questions, actually get an answer, of course.

 

1. A short extract from the explanatory material and information provided with Question 2 on the Billingsgate page, followed by a Panel question.

 

[After giving a quotation from a sermon delivered by Dr Billings at St Mary's Church, Sheffield

 

https://stmaryswalkley.co.uk/we-walk-on-holy-ground-14th-february-2021-the-sunday-next-before-lent/ ]

 

'The Revd Canon obviously has not just a high opinion of Moses but believes that Moses has a very high place in the history of God's revelation. This is a You tube video published by the Rock Christian Centre, the place he attended to mark the relaunch of the Christian Police Association - the Fundamentalist Christian Police Association.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyAjdOLe1Ao&t=45s

 

The text which is spoken (Leviticus 20) is provided in written form.'

 

I gave extracts from the text, including this

 

[1] The Lord said to Moses, [2] "Say to the Israelites: 'Any Israelite or any alien living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the community are to stone him.

 

and this:

 

 [13] " 'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

 

and this:

 

[27] " 'A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.' "

 

I concluded with these questions:

 

Is Alan Billings certain that this can't possibly amount to thought crime or hate speech because it appears in The Bible, 'the word of God.' Is it impossible for the word of God to be hateful? Can he really claim that all the instances of thought crime or hate speech dealt with by South Yorkshire Police, with his active encouragement, are more hateful than any of this?

 

Questions for the Panels: Do you think that endorsing the commands here doesn't amount to hate crime, couldn't possibly be described as a form of hate crime, is nothing like the 'hate crime' for which sanctions have been imposed by South Yorkshire Police or do you take a different view? If an open-air preacher or a preacher in a Church quotes any of this and urges hearers to take the texts to heart and urges schools and other institutions to use the 'teaching' (in modified form, to suit the very different circumstances of the present day) could the preacher be accused of hate crime? Is the policy of South Yorkshire Police and the policy advocated by Dr Billings reasonably consistent and defensible?

 

2. Another issue, one not discussed in the Billingsgate page, from another Rock Christian Centre video

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVYyY2FX4d4

 

Deuteronomy 20, the same questions.

 

[10] When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. [11] If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subject to forced labor and shall work for you. [12] If they refuse to make peace and they engage you in battle, lay siege to that city. [13] When the Lord your God delivers it into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it. [14] As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies. [15] This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby. [16] However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. [17] Completely destroy them---the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites---as the Lord your God has commanded you.

 

Questions for the Panels: Do you think that endorsing the commands here doesn't amount to hate crime, couldn't possibly be described as a form of hate crime, is nothing like the 'hate crime' for which sanctions have been imposed by South Yorkshire Police or do you take a different view? If an open-air preacher or a preacher in a Church quotes any of this and urges hearers to take the texts to heart, even though the commands aren't applicable to present day conditions, could the preacher be accused of hate crime? Is the policy of South Yorkshire Police and the policy advocated by Dr Billings reasonably consistent and defensible?

 

3. These question concerns a situation not too dissimilar from the one which forms the basis of Question 2. Further information in the section on this page Councillor Abdul Khayum, the former Chair of the Police and Crime Panel. Extract from the section:


A LABOUR Councillor who is also a practising magistrate has been placed under official investigation over social media posts calling for the violent annihilation of Israel.

 

Cllr Abdul Khayum, who sits on Sheffield City Council, is being investigated by Labour over a series of shocking posts, including the sharing of a pro-Islamic terrorist video that depicts graphic violence and reads: “O Allah, destroy Israel.

 

Do you think that Councillor Abdul Khayum could never have been accused of hate crime or investigated for hate crime? Has 'hate crime' been defined in sufficient detail? Are there anomalies, serious or otherwise? Does the position of the person make a difference when deciding whether to investigate a person for possible hate crime or deciding on the sanction, if found guilty? Would chairing the Police and Crime Panel have any importance as a criterion? When a person is investigated for possible 'hate crime,' how thorough is the process? How thorough is the available documentation which guides the process? Where is the documentation to be found?

 

3. From the Website of the Rock Christian Centre

 

http://www.rockchristiancentre.org/why-christianity/

 

the section on Islam:

 

'The Law of God shows us that the best of us is nothing but a wicked criminal, standing guilty and condemned before the throne of a perfect and holy Judge. When that is understood, then our “righteous deeds” are actually seen as an attempt to bribe the Judge of the Universe. The Bible says that because of our guilt, anything we offer God for our justification (our acquittal from His courtroom) is an abomination to Him, and only adds to our crimes.'

 

There were many possible venues which could have been chosen for the occasion which marked the relaunch of the Christian Police Association, attended by the Police and Crime Commissioner, Sergeant Kirkham - the subject of my complaint to the Independent Office for Police Conduct - and the then Chief Constable. But to be taken into account, the fact that the theological views of the Christian Police Association are very similar to the views of the Rock Christian Centre.

 

Do you think that this was a suitable venue?

 

Do the non-Christian members of the Police and Crime Panel and the Independent Ethics Panel mind if they are regarded as attempting 'to bribe the Judge of the Universe?' Could this passage be regarded as amounting to 'Hate Crime?' Does it present a view of non-Christians which is hateful?  Was Dr Billings supporting / endorsing / implicitly or explicitly giving the impression that the Rock Christian Centre is free from any trace of hatefulness?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

Email    

 

 

Mick Hood is someone I respect very much - but not for his role as a member of the Independent Ethics Panel. He works in the steel industry at Stocksbridge. I'm very much aware of the very high achievement of the steel company and of Stocksbridge.  One of the photographs on the Home Page of the site is one I took inside a rolling mill at Stocksbridge during a visit I made to the works with other members of the South Yorkshire Industrial History Society. The photograph is included in this section, together with comment. I'll remove all reference to Mick Hood from the page (and the site) after a time, leaving only the mention of the fact that he's a member of the Independent Ethics Panel.

 

 This section includes Supplementary Material about Stocksbridge and its industries. Clicking on the link takes you to the Supplementary Information in this section. As so often, the Supplementary Information is simply contrasting information, included for its interest, not to further my argument on the page. This supplementary material is followed by more general material which isn't supplementary: it has relevance to some of the issues discussed on this page and others.

 

Members of the Church of England descended on Stocksbridge and so many other places in the Sheffield area. People in the area were, I think, misled and given partial and misleading information provided by the Church. No less than 21 Bishops came. They included a significant number of Bishops who were not abusers themselves but who have now been shown to have failed victims of child sex abuse.

 

They came, they preached, they prayed, they went away. They were intent on this: saving souls, as they saw it, for Jesus Christ. The practical problems of these areas weren't solved by these people, or by God. Praying for a place leaves the problems of the place unsolved. If anyone wants to take issue with this claim of mine, they're welcome to contact me and perhaps we can have a debate about the so-called 'Power of Prayer,' perhaps with wide-ranging arguments, such as the relative benefits of prayer and armaments in winning the war in Ukraine, or the relative benefits of prayer and science in medicine.

 

From the page

 

https://www.foxvalleysheffield.co.uk/news/
hundreds-attend-open-air-service-at-fox-valley

 

Hundreds attend open air service at Fox Valley
14 September 2015

 

Hundreds of people attended a special service at Fox Valley in Stocksbridge yesterday (Sunday) led by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu.

The Archbishop blessed local community groups, businesses and churches, as well as the new Fox Valley development during the open-air Community Celebration ...

The visit was part of a four-day ‘Crossroads’ mission across Sheffield Diocese involving 21 Bishops of the Church of England. 

The service took place at the new office buildings at the £50 million development, the first phase of the development to be completed. The retail development at Fox Valley is on schedule for a Spring 2016 opening.

...

The new development, which neighbours Tata Speciality Steels in Stocksbridge, is being delivered by the Barnsley based company Dransfield Properties Ltd and the main contractor is Henry Boot Construction.

The visit forms part of a four-day historic ‘Crossroads’ mission across Sheffield Diocese involving 21 Bishops of the Church of England.  Hundreds of events will take place as part of the Crossroads Mission across the region in schools, pubs, universities, colleges, shopping centres, community centres, cafes and churches.

Mick Hood, Human Resources Director at Tata Steel, said: “The visit to Stocksbridge by the Archbishop will mean a lot to our employees and the community.

https://www.sheffieldcathedral.org/news/
2015/9/1/bishop-steven-introduces-crossroads-mission

Steven Croft, the Bishop of Sheffield at the time, introduced the mission, did more than 'introduce' the mission. He was an advocate for the mission, he promoted the mission - but the energy he showed as an advocate for the mission and a promoter of the mission was sadly lacking at a time when decisive leadership was called for. He failed, and the Archbishop at the time, Justin Sentamu, also failed. Both of them are mentioned in the extract here.

The extract is followed by information about some other bishops who were involved in the Crossroads Mission and who also failed abysmally. A striking fact - I've only been able to find out the identities of a few of the 21 bishops who were involved in the Mission, but a high proportion of those bishops, the smaller number, not the 21, have been strongly criticized for inaction in cases to do with sexual abuse in the Church of England. 

Bishop Steven Croft said,

'We want to sow the good seed of the gospel outside the churches ... we want to encourage people to learn more about the Christian faith.' The others mentioned in the caption, the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu and Rev Hilda Isaacson, the Archdeacon of Sheffield and Rotherham, will be aware that the Gospel is only 'Good News' for those people who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.' These people, no matter what harm they have done, are destined for an eternity in union with the Saviour. All the others - the vast majority - will be destined for an eternity in separation from the Saviour, in the place, or the state, referred to as 'Hell.' Whatever good they have done will not be taken into account.

So, all the people of Stocksbridge, all disabled people, all loving mothers and fathers, past and present, in this country and all countries of the world, all politicians, local and national, absolutely everybody, are destined to hell if they fail to accept Christ as 'Lord and Saviour.'

There are Christians who don't emphasize the 'bad news' of the gospel and only emphasize the 'good news,' the salvation of a tiny minority,  and a minority of Christians don't believe in damnation at all, but they have to ignore or misinterpret so many 'Biblical texts' which show the 'truth' of the matter - the truth' of the matter is no truth at all, but a hideous collection of claims that nobody in their right mind could possibly accept.

Now, some material (taken from Wikipedia) on the shameful record of some of the 21 bishops who attempted to convert Sheffield people to their way of thinking. Names of bishops who played a role in the Mission are given in bold print.

In May 2016 Sentamu was one of six bishops accused of procedural misconduct by a survivor of child sex abuse  (the accusation was to do with how the complaint was handled; none of the six were involved in the abuse). Sentamu was named in The Guardian and the Church Times alongside Peter Burrows, Steven Croft, Martyn Snow, Glyn Webster and Roy Williamson, as subject of Clergy Disciplinary Measure complaints owing to their inaction on the survivor's disclosure. The bishops contested the complaints because they were made after the church's required one-year limit. Sentamu had acknowledged receipt of a letter from the survivor with an assurance of "prayers through this testing time". But according to the Guardian report, no action was taken against the alleged abuser nor support offered to the survivor by the church. A spokesperson for the archbishop said that Sentamu had simply acknowledged a copy of a letter addressed to another bishop. "The original recipient of the letter had a duty to respond and not the archbishop", the spokesperson said. All six bishops appeared on a protest brochure which the survivor handed out at Steven Croft's enthronement as Bishop of Oxford. In April 2018 it was reported that Sentamu and four other bishops were under investigation by South Yorkshire Police  for failure to respond properly to a report of clerical child abuse. A memo from June 2013, seen by The Times and other media revealed that Sentamu had received the allegation but recommended that 'no action' be taken. The priest against whom the allegation was made died by suicide the day before he was due in court in June 2017.The Archbishop of York's office said:

 

The diocese of York insists that Sentamu did not fail to act on any disclosures because that responsibility lay with Ineson's local bishop, Steven Croft,  who was at the time bishop of Sheffield.

 

A statement from Justin Welby, made at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse:

 

It is not an acceptable human response, let alone a leadership response to say “I have heard about a problem, but … it was someone else’s job to report it”.

 

An article advocating the Crossroads Mission by Bishop Peter Burrows, cited in the article above, can be found at

 

https://www.sheffieldcathedral.org/news/
2015/9/1/bishop-steven-introduces-crossroads-mission

 

More on Bishop Glyn Webster, also cited above:

Webster was heavily criticised at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) within the Church of England, and doubts were raised regarding the veracity of the evidence he gave to the inquiry after a victim had alleged that he had spoken with Webster about historical abuse by another Anglican bishop, and that the victim had “been advised by him not to report it” and to move on.

 

In October 2020, a report was published, entitled "A Betrayal of Trust" – an independent past case review requested by The Church of England, chaired by David Pearl. This found on the balance of probabilities that Webster had lied to the Independent Inquiry and had failed to act in a serious safeguarding breach within the Church.

On 23 October 2020 the Church Times reported the above findings and other national newspapers, including The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Times all published articles suggesting that Webster might lose his office as Bishop of Beverley and might be banned from episcopal and priestly ministry within the Church of England. Webster resigned in 2022 whilst the accusations were still being investigated.

 

The Crossroads Mission included the most recent Bishops to have been consecrated in the North at the time. Bishop Philip North of Burnley was one of the two people mentioned. Further information about Bishop Philip North:

 

On 31 January 2017, it was announced that North was to be translated to become Bishop of Sheffield;  his installation at Sheffield Cathedral had been scheduled for June 2017, by which point he must have been elected and confirmed. . However, he withdrew his acceptance of the nomination on 9 March 2017 following several public objections on the basis of his rejection of the ordination of women and the number of women serving as priests in the diocese. In his statement of withdrawal, North cited "personal attacks".

 

The Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire, the Reverend Canon Alan Billings, has given a biased, misleading, propagandist picture of the Church of England. Any references to the Church's significant - notorious -problems to do with sexual abuse, have been very few and  very muted.

 

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, can surely not be absolved from blame. From the Wikipedia entry on Justin Welby:

 

 

In February 2017, Welby apologised unreservedly after allegations that barrister and evangelical Christian John Smyth beat boys in the late 1970s, mainly pupils at Winchester College , until their wounds bled and left permanent scars. Smyth was a senior member of Christian charity the Iwerne Trust   in the 1970s and 1980s. These allegations were suppressed] for decades, although Smyth was asked[ to leave the UK.

 

Welby's early grounding in Christian doctrine was rooted in the 'Bash Camp' network founded by Eric Nash.   Welby became a dormitory officer at the camps held in the Dorset village of Iwerne Minster.  From 1978–81, John Smyth allegedly carried out a series of brutal beatings on boys and undergraduates, recorded in a report written by Canon Mark Ruston in February 1982.

Smyth was described by Welby in 2017 as "charming" and "delightful"  and they swapped Christmas cards for some years in the 1990s. In 1978, Welby left the UK to work in Paris, and Welby stated that "I had no contact with them at all". It later materialised that Welby had attended the camp in this period and had continued to receive the camp newsletter. Andrew Atherstone in the biography,  Risk Taker and Reconciler, describes Welby as having been "involved in the camps as an undergraduate […] businessman and theological college student in the 1980s and early 1990s."

 

In 2012, a victim of Smyth reported the abuse to the Church of England and Welby was informed in 2013. The Archbishop maintained that this was the first he had heard of the abuse by his old friend. The New York Times   on 14 October 2017 quoted a senior Church of England figure as saying that "all senior members of the trust, including officers like Archbishop Welby, had been made aware of the allegations against Mr Smyth, even those who had been abroad". Questions have remained among Smyth victims as to when Welby first knew, and some have labelled the Archbishop an "observer", a term denoting a person who knew about abuse but who did not report appropriately.

 

Alan Billings has failed to give an honest account of the Church's problems, the self-inflicted harm, the disarray and stupidity. The problems are so many that it would be impossible for one person to cover a fraction of them.   He has failed, comprehensively failed. No solution will be forthcoming from Dr Billings. He is part of the problem. His 'Police and Crime Panel' and 'Independent Ethics Panel' have been subservient to him, have propped him up, have been unwilling and unable to offer any effective checks. His grossly excessive powers have not been subject to effective checks and balances.

 

Supplementary Information about Stocksbridge and its industries: extracts from  the wonderful print publication, 'Sheffield at War,' published in 1948, and the Wikipedia entry on Stocksbridge. The extract from 'Sheffield at War' includes heartening material on some of the massive benefits of industry and the work of  the Samuel Fox factory at Stocksbridge.

 

From 'Sheffield at War:'

 

The United Steel Companies Ltd., owners of ironstone mines, coalfields, blast furnaces, teel furnaces, rolling mills, forges and foundries, have the distinction of being the largest steel producers in the British Commonwealth.

 

The organization of the undertaking falls into three main geographical groups, but this account is concerned with only one of them - the Sheffield Group, which includes Steel, Peech and Tozer and United Strip and Bar Mills, Samuel Fox and Co. Ltd., and a number of South Yorkshire collieries.

 

The great business was not built up to wreck cities, to sink navies, or to destroy armies, but to contribute to the comfort and happiness of the peoples of the world by giving them ships, railways and motor cars for transport, buildings to dwell in, plants to give them power, light and heat, agricultural machinery to bring them food.

With the outbreak of war the whole of the great resources of the United Steel Companies was diverted to the production of vital materials to equip our sea, land and air forces. {Bold print as in the original.]

 

... Samuel Fox and Co. Ltd., situated at Stocksbridge had, before the war, been concentrating to an increasing extent on the production of alloy and special steels, and of highly finished products such as springs, wire and cold rolled strip, and here again the effect of the war was to intensify the demand for these products, and steps were taken to increase production in all sections of the works.

 

The first demand was for large quantities of high grade alloy steels, principally for aircraft. A new 10-ton arc furnace had just been installed when war broke out, and other furnaces were added later. This increased production of alloy steel also made it necessary to provide additional processing facilities. [Again, bold print as in the original.]

 

...

 

At the special request of the Government, a plant was installed in the spring shop for the manufacture of tank suspension coil springs ...

 

The wire products of this branch were urgently required for war purposes, in particular high tensile alloy steels for aero and motor engines, fuse spring wire, welding wire  and bullet and ball steel. There was a steadily increasing demand for stainless steel and for high temperature resistance wire.

 

...

 

The output of the stainless steel works was quadrupled to meet war requirements; these latter were chiefly for stainless sheets for aircraft exhaust pipes, and also for stainless steel sheets for army cookers, and for high manganese sheets for steel helmets.

 

From the Wikipedia article on Stocksbridge

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stocksbridge

Until the early 18th century, what is now Stocksbridge was a deciduously  wooded valley, running from Midhopestones  at its northwestern extremity to Deepcar   at its southeastern end ... In 1794 three businessmen, Jonathan Denton, Benjamin Grayson and Thomas Cannon built a large cotton mill extremely close by, or possibly upon, the site of the original mill ...

 

Below, the original cotton mill

 

 

The valley bottom today is almost entirely occupied by steel works. Samuel Fox  acquired the old cotton mill in 1842, at first renting it from its then owner, Joshua Newton. Nine years later, in 1851, he purchased the mill outright from Joshua's son, Thomas Newton. Fox converted the place to use as a wire mill, and built much of the infrastructure of Stocksbridge, primarily to house his new workforce and to supply their needs.

 

The business continued to expand, and extended into different products, but underwent a major change in direction in the early 1860s when Fox realized that he could save large amounts of money by making his own steel for the wire, rather than buying it in. Furnaces and a rolling mill were installed, which in turn allowed the production of railway lines and springs. 

...

Samuel Fox & Co joined Steel, Peech and Tozer at Templeborough   to form the United Steel Companies (USC) following the First World War.  From then on the products of the USC sites were coordinated so that each works specialised in set products. Fox’s specialised in special steel produce such as spring steel and stainless steels. This developed into the manufacture of high-quality steel for the aviation industry ...  During the Second World War, 'Sammy Fox's' Steelworks was kept busy as part of the war effort. During the Sheffield Blitz by the Luftwaffe, the bombers used the dam at the end of Stocksbridge as a turning point for their run back toward Sheffield.

 

More supplementary information:

 

Below, a photograph I took inside a rolling mill at Stocksbridge during a visit organized by South Yorkshire Industrial History Society. I've been a member of the society for a long time. The society also  organizes events which are concerned with present-day industrial achievement. (Another event, attended by a very large number of people, was concerned with the construction of the Tornado A1 steam locomotive.) I'm surprised that I took a photograph at all. I had no interest in photography for a long time and since then very little interest and interest for a limited purpose, to produce images for this site. The rolling mill will now be part of Liberty Steel if this particular mill is still in operation. Liberty Steel has an annual steel rolling capacity approaching three million tonnes, outstanding by any standard.

 

The photograph is, followed by a short piece on industry I wrote at about the time I visited the rolling mill with the other members. There's a reference to the photograph in the piece. This isn't supplementary material. There's a reference to religion in the piece I wrote. The views I put forward many years ago are views I still have.

 

 

There's an increasing awareness of food and its linkages with the earth, with good and poor uses of the earth, an awareness which is essential for understanding the contemporary difficulties and dilemmas of food production. At the same time, there's surely a limited awareness of the linkages between the articles we use and the earth - the iron ore and the other metals in the earth, the minerals in the earth, the oil deep beneath the earth, the earth and all the other raw materials of industry, which include the air. A limited understanding of the manufacturing processes themselves, of their difficulty and complexity, of the ingenuity and resourcefulness which have been needed to devise the processes. A limited knowledge of manufacturing's past as well as its present...

 

The tools essential for cultivating the soil, unlike the soil itself, are taken for granted, yet the manufacture of tools such as scythes using water power required a vast degree of effort, ingenuity and resourcefulness to make the massive water wheels, hammers and grindstones - before steam power, a development of incalculable importance, made it possible to site works almost anywhere, away from running water.

 

South Yorkshire's industrial past and present includes these things but so much more:precision engineering and engineering on a massive scale and the combination of the two: the extremely fine tolerances for massive parts which had begun as molten metal poured from massive ladles, the  control over great masses of metal which seems effortless  (The one shown in the image above, weighing many tonnes, was flipped over and compressed with a flick of the operator's hand on the control lever and slight pressure on foot pedals. This control is the culmination of very long and very arduous development, development which was never in the least effortless.) The extreme sophistication and complexity of the manufacturing processes. Ingots of steel weighing 200 tonnes each. Giant crankshafts for ships and other marine forgings. Special steels for innumerable different purposes, such as heat resistant steels for jet engines.

Compassion

Compassion: a simple example of compassion, giving water to the thirsty. (See the simple-minded Gospel according to Saint Matthew, 25: 35, where the righteous who go away into 'life eternal' are praised: '...I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink.') Water, although not an element, is elemental, a basic requirement of life, but providing this basic requirement isn't at all simple. Water illustrates the complexity of reality. It can carry disease organisms, such as those that cause cholera. The separation of water for drinking and water for disposal of faeces poses immense practical problems.

 

If gratitude should be shown to the compassionate, it should be shown too for those who by their practical achievements made the compassionate act possible: for the engineers who designed dams, for those who built the dams and made the bricks and the other materials for the pipes which led the water from the dams, for the foundries and other factories which manufactured the taps, the pumps. For the mathematical and scientific innovators who developed the techniques in calculus, fluid mechanics and the other techniques needed for supplying water.

 

Religious people are often very fond of simplicities, such as compassionate feelings and compassionate acts. Compassion, like love, is thought to be in a sphere beyond complexities. Taking fruit from trees, taking vegetables from the earth - perhaps to feed the hungry (Matthew 25: 35 again) without the need to bother about diseases or pests and the best ways of controlling them, without any thought given to the manufacture of the tools and equipment needed for cultivation.

 

 



Some issues arising from the material in the column to the left, with additional material

A LABOUR Councillor who is also a practising magistrate has been placed under official investigation over social media posts calling for the violent annihilation of Israel.

 

Cllr Abdul Khayum, who sits on Sheffield City Council, is being investigated by Labour over a series of shocking posts, including the sharing of a pro-Islamic terrorist video that depicts graphic violence and reads: “O Allah, destroy Israel ...

 Abdul Khayum was the Chair of the Police and Crime Panel at the meeting of 7 July, 2017. One of the items recorded in the minutes was this:

 

 'Judicial Review: Outcome.' On 9 June 2017, the High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division quashed the four decisions of the PCC (Police and Crime Commissioner) leading to David Crompton being required to resign ...'

Abdul Khayum has stated that he's required to hold the Police and Crime Commissioner to account but he did nothing, and the so-called Independent Ethics Panel did nothing - I can find no trace of the episode in the minutes of their meetings.

 

The High Court of Justice had made serious criticisms of actions of the PCC.

https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/wp-content/uploads/crompton-v-pcc-approved-judgment.pdf

In the third column of my page

 https://www.linkagenet.com/themes/police-crime-independent-ethics-panels.htm

a section, 'POLICE AND CRIME PANEL FOR SOUTH YORKSHIRE VIEWS OF HM CHIEF INSPECTOR OF CONSTABULARY IN THE CASE OF CHIEF CONSTABLE DAVID CROMPTON.'

From the minutes of the Police and Crime Panel Meeting:

 

 

 

Extracts from background material on other pages concerning action by South Yorkshire Police and the complaints I have initiated

 

Three short extracts from my page Capability, which includes material on the PIN (Police Information Notice, often referred to as 'Harassment Warning) issued to me for using the words 'blundering buffoon.'

 

1. Yorkshire people are often supposed to be blunt, plain-speaking folk, but South Yorkshire Police seem to have a very different view - of South Yorkshire people as fragile, timid people with no capacity for common sense or good sense, incapable of standing up for themselves. Serving police officers have a career which is interesting, obviously of immense value to society, but one which potentially makes great demands - sensitivity, compassion, firmness, the willingness to use reasonable force when needed, determination, physical and sometimes moral courage, flexibility, versatility, and other qualities. Sometimes, though, policing can be a very easy job. I'd say that the job allocated to the policewoman who delivered the Harassment Warning wasn't too demanding. I don't give her name here or anywhere else.

 

2. What if the NHS spent a great deal of time and money on treating very minor injuries, insignificant injuries - ones which could hardly be described as injuries -  possible injuries, or even non-existent injuries, whilst neglecting conditions which are very serious or exceptionally serious? Police forces, South Yorkshire Police included, do something not so very different.

The National Health Service, facing unprecedented demands and unprecedented financial crises, may well have to introduce rationing of its services. Harsh realities are having a huge impact. Police forces, however, also confronted by harsh realities, sometimes act as if money is unimportant - public money, that is -  if we're to judge by their readiness to spend money on completely unnecessary PIN's

 

3. Alan Billings has identified 'Treating People Fairly' as one of the three 'Policing and Crime Priorities' in his glossy publication 'Keeping Safe: The Police and Crime Plan for South Yorkshire 2017 - 2021, Renewed 2019.'

Only a few categories of unfairness are discussed on the page 'Treating People Fairly,' for example these.

'Ethnic minorities point to the fact that they are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system and may feel that they have undue police attention.'

Other minorities - such as LGBT ... - may say they are not recognized or understood as well as they should be. If hate crimes are to be properly recorded and investigated we need the police to understand what the issues are and what is at stake.'

And I hope that Dr Billings understands that people who don't belong to the communities he singles out can be treated unfairly by the police. I hope that Dr Billings understands that an accusation of hate crime can be completely unfair, completely unjust - and that the issuing of a Harassment Warning can be completely unfair, completely unjust.

 

 

Before the main extracts, some introductory material:

 

From the Community Protection Notice - Written Warning issued to me: ' ... your conduct is having a detrimental effect, of a persistent or continuing nature on the quality of life of those in the locality and the conduct is unreasonable now issue you with a WRITTEN WARNING.

 

A copy of an email I sent to the secretary of the local allotment association (4.10.2019). The secretary replied and informed me that she had sent a copy of my email to a Police Officer who deals with community policing.

 

'I saw the damage at one allotment this morning, the kind of damage seen so often this year - a very disappointing, disheartening experience.  On Wednesday, I went to an 'Open Meeting on Safer Neighbourhoods,' attended by Alan Billings, the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Paul Blomfield MP and, also, a police officer. I spoke at length on the problems experienced at our Morley Street allotments this year.'

 

Does South Yorkshire Police suppose that I engage in two completely different activities - destructive activities, damaging the 'quality of life' in the locality, and constructive activities, doing what I can to oppose damage in the locality, to the extent of attending a meeting and speaking at the meeting? Does South Yorkshire Police suppose that the person who has tried to enhance the neighbourhood by his gardening activities, recorded on the Home Page of the site and on other pages, is a person whose conduct 'is having a detrimental effect of a persistent or continuing nature on the quality of life of those in the locality?'

 

I can assure South Yorkshire Police that my work, which includes work for swifts, those miraculous but threatened migratory birds which visit these streets each year, by means of a new design of nesting box, and work for dragonflies, which now visit the area, and so many other projects, occupy my time. I can assure South Yorkshire Police that  I spend absolutely no time wrecking the neighbourhood and damaging the quality of life of those in the neighbourhod.

 

Allegations to the contrary are poisonous and amount to defamation of character. I was accused of 'harassment' but it's South Yorkshire Police who have been harassing me, surely, by their repeated, clumsy, inexcusable actions: to be more exact, the damaging actions of one or two members of South Yorkshire Police.

 

The pages of the site which are concerned with South Yorkshire Police and the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner are all written with this in mind: no matter what the failures of South Yorkshire Police, the emphasis is upon the failures of Alan Billings. As I see it, the strengths of South Yorkshire Police far outweigh the failures - a general comment, not a specific comment concerned with my own case. As I see it, the failures of Alan Billings outweigh any strengths. I take the view that he should resign.

 

Below, information about my efforts, over a long period of time, in connection with a massive, potentially hazardous pile of fly-tipped material on the site later used as a 'Garden Church' - which did nothing for so long. Eventually, the pile was removed. I've no information about who carried out the work. From these local origins, a wide-reaching case has developed, involving issues as varied as freedom of expression, the blocking of freedom of expression , the multiple failures of the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, and so much else - including the failure of South Yorkshire Police to consider its use of scarce resources.

 

Two members of South Yorkshire Police were sent to my house to present the grotesque 'Community Protection Notice - Written Warning'  and were here for almost an hour. An earlier visit to present a Harassment Warning to me for calling someone a 'blundering buffoon' in a private phone conversation and email took up a similar amount of time of one member of South Yorkshire Police. This is a farcical - and disturbing - use of police time and police resources. 

 

What of Alan Billings, the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner who is supposed to scrutinize the actions of South Yorkshire Police, amongst other things? I take the view, based on wide and detailed evidence, that he has a not-so-hidden-agenda. His position as a Church of England 'Reverend Canon' is obvious all too often in his statements and actions. I take the view that he has not adhered to the oath he was required to take on assuming office. In 'Keeping Safe, the Police and Crime Plan for South Yorkshire 2017 - 2021' he writes,

 

'The overriding message for the coming year (2019 -20) is that we must get better at working together for the common good. The prophet put it this way: 'Seek the well-being of the place where you are set ... for in its well-being you will find your own.' (Jeremiah 29,7)

 

As I've pointed out in other places, there was absolutely no need to include this quotation from an Old Testament Prophet in his 'Police and Crime Plan.' The words omitted from the quotation and the text which follows in the original make it absolutely clear that Alan Billings has quoted out of context, concealing and distorting the 'message' of the 'prophet.' The 'message' of the prophet Jeremiah has no relevance whatsoever to the problems and challenges of policing in South Yorkshire.

 

The extracts:

 

The complaints are against a Sergeant of South Yorkshire Police and the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner. Some of the material is grotesque. For instance, the first item in the list below describes the  action taken by South Yorkshire Police for my use of the words 'blundering buffoon.' To send a Police Constable to my house to deliver the Harassment Warning, together with all the administrative time which must have been spent - and now the time spent in assessing my complaint - is to me grossly irresponsible use of police time. I have previously made a complaint concerning this particular matter. The complaint was handled by a Hate Crime specialist and the outcome was unsatisfactory in every way.

 

That is one of the reasons why I have since complained to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. The 'blundering buffoon' issue was only the start of a series of events which were not farcical but deeply disturbing, with implications, I believe, for some of our fundamental freedoms. For now, the various events and episodes, the arguments and documentary evidence I have provided, are being assessed by the Professional Standards Department of South Yorkshire Police. The Professional Standards Department is taking their time. I wonder why.

 

5 December, 2015. Police constable came to my house and issued a 'Police Information Notice'  (often referred to as a 'Harassment Warning.') Extracts from the Police Information Notice, omitting the names of the complainants:
 

' ... if the kind of behaviour described here were to continue, then you would be liable to arrest and prosecution.'

 

Crime Ref: K/116966/15

 

Details of alleged conduct

YOU CALLED AND LEFT A VOICEMAIL MESSAGE ON MR  & MRS X LANDLINE CALLING THEM BLUNDERING BUFFOONS.'

 

YOU HAVE ALSO EMAILED MR X AT WORK STATING THE SAME INSULT.

 

An immediate comment. The claim that I called Mrs X a 'blundering buffoon' is false. I did use the words 'blundering buffoon' but the words were used in a private phone conversation and a private email addressed only to Mr X. I used a courteous tone in the phone call and in the email message.

 

The context here is very important. If the police had contacted me before using up the time of a Police Constable, I would have given information about provocative, time-wasting, bizarre behaviour on the part of Mr X which went on for months.

 

 

8 September, 2021. Email sent to Lu Skerratt-Love pointing out difficulties (mainly security, safety) to do with the proposed garden church at some allotments near to my allotments. Email not received by Lu Skerratt-Love. Tim Ling of the Church Army had decided to block emails from me to Lu Skerratt-Love. By 12 September he had blocked emails from to himself and all members of the Research Unit. Since that time, no members of the Church Army have received emails from me.

 

 I received a message to inform me that 'Delivery has failed ... Your message wasn't delivered. Despite repeated attempts to deliver your message, the recipient's email system refused to accept a connection from your email system.'

 

All Lu Skerratt-Love's complaints to South Yorkshire Police about alleged emails from me were made when she must have known that she had never received emails from me, are based upon falsification.

 

8 October, 2021. Letter from me to Lu Skerratt-Love and Tim Ling, quoted in its entirety below. After this one letter, no further letters sent.

 

October, 2021. Received a phone call quite late in the evening. Informed that this was a representative of South Yorkshire Police but no name given. I was told to remove material concerning Lu Skerratt-Love from my Website. I made it clear that this was out of the question.

 

22 November, 2021. Card received from South Yorkshire Police asking me to contact them. When I contacted them, told that Lu Skerratt-Love had complained about receiving unwanted emails from me. Told to stop this. I pointed out that Lu Skerratt-Love hadn't received any emails from me. They were blocked. Considered making a complaint but decided not to. I didn't want to cause any difficulties for the Police Constable who communicated the information.

 

15 February, 1922.  Two police constables called at my house to issue a 'Community Protection Notice - Written Warning' after yet another complaint from Lu Skerratt-Love, about alleged emails and letters, to other members of the Church Army as well as herself. Again, a complete fabrication.  After the email and letter mentioned above, no further emails and letters have been received by these people. I decided that a complaint to the Professional Standards Department of South Yorkshire Police is fully justifiable.

 

 WRITTEN WARNING [Emphasis as in the original] issued to me by South Yorkshire Police PC's on 15.02.2022

Pursuant to Section 43 Part 4 Chapter 1 (Community Protection Notices) Anti-social Behaviour Crime and Policing Act 2014.

 ' ... your conduct is having a detrimental effect of a persistent or continuing nature on the quality of life of those in the locality and the conduct is unreasonable.'

 'If from this time and date, the conduct is still having a detrimental impact on the quality of life of those in the locality, you will be served a Community Protection Notice. It is a criminal offence not to comply with the Notice ... If found guilty you could be fined up to £2,500.'

 

Details of the alleged conduct:

 

The Police have become aware of you contacting Lu Skerratt-Love via email and hand delivered letters. You have also been contacting her work colleagues via email and letter regarding her. In some of these correspondences you make mention of her personal faith. When you write these emails and letters it causes great upset to Lu and her colleagues at work. This is not fair and certainly not right to do so. It is important that you realise how much you are upsetting / distressing Lu with this conduct. You would not wish for such conduct for your loved ones. We are willing to help in anyway.

 

From my email to Lu Skerratt-Love. The tone isn''t threatening or abusive but courteous. In any case, she never received the email or any other emails from me. It was impossible to send an email to Lu Skerratt-Love because emails were blocked.

Dear Lu Skerratt-Love,

'I write in connection with this post on the St Marks Website:

'SHEFFIELD FOREST CHURCH – SATURDAY 11 SEPTEMBER AT 2.30PM

'After a summer break, we’re back! Join us for Forest Church on the theme of Creation at the Garden Church in Walkley (Walkley Community Garden, Morley Street S6 2PL) for time to be and worship in God’s creation. Bring a drink and a snack for after the service! Our services are intentionally all age and LGBTQ+ affirming, so whatever stage of life or journey you’re on – you’re so very welcome! For more information, you can find us on facebook or email

 sheffield.forest.church@gmail.com

'I have two allotments on the Morley Street site in Sheffield. I was dismayed to find that the Forest Church is planning to hold this event at Morley Street this Saturday.

The plan is  disastrously misguided, surely. These are some objections:

'The place where it is planned to hold the event is rented land. These are Sheffield Council allotments and as such, are subject to allotment law.  The allotments are rented by Lower Walkley Community Group (LWCG). The group's decision to give permission for the Forest Church to hold the event was very misguided but I have evidence to show that throughout, the use of the land by LWCG has been incompetent.

'[You are] seemingly unaware of the legislation applicable to allotments which is intended to protect the safety of the public and the issue of legal liability. Allotments do have hazards, and in the event of injury to a member of the public attending the event at the 'Forest Garden,' there could easily be severe legal consequences.

'According to information I've received, a fundamental disagreement concerning access to the Community Garden precipitated dissension within the group, leading to members going their separate ways and the neglect of the garden, which lasted for many years until this year, when some work has been done, although hardly any of it to do with the growing of food plants. There was a short period when access to the garden was restricted, by a locked gate, but for most of the time, anyone who wanted to enter the garden was able to.

A very striking , and very off-putting feature of the garden is the very large heap of rubbish, very long as well as high - discarded plastic, rubbish of many, many kinds, with further rubbish in some Council Wheelie bins. If it's assumed that this was all left by fly tippers, it can't be the only explanation. I think these must have been left by the Group itself. [I've since received information from a reliable source, a person who has an allotment near to my own allotments, that the fly-tipping was the action of a member of the Community Garden Group. Amongst the discarded plastic containers are ones which once held organic seaweed fertilizer. 
'I've been informed that youths have sometimes gathered in the LWCG garden and been involved in solvent abuse. I can't verify this but an open garden obviously carries security risks. The  LWCG garden is some distance from the road, down the long and gloomy heavily path by the side of the Walkley Bank Allotment Association hut. The garden itself is shielded from view. It may not be likely that the church members would meet trouble but if they ever did, this isn't the kind of place where it would be easy to get help quickly. I don't think this is being too alarmist. About thirty years ago, there was a murder on an allotment site in the Rivelin Valley. Three youths were sniffing glue in the allotment. Two of them turned on the third and stabbed him with a garden tool. In the time I've had my allotments, there have been some troubling incidents affecting allotment holders, including threatening behaviour directed at them. The Forest Church has ignored the serious problems to do with security.
'A Christian event at an allotment site would set a very troublesome precedent. Allotments are primarily places for growing food but they have other uses. From the introduction to 'Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book:'
'In my most optimistic moments, I see every town ringed again with small gardens, nurseries, allotments, greenhouses, orchards, as it was in the past, an assertion of delight and human scale.'
'Allotments  should not be places for Christian evangelism or Christian worship. Christians have many other venues available for that. There is no need to use allotments at all. Allotments are not the place for the singing of hymns  for preaching or for public prayer. 
I hope that this conveys some of my reasons for disagreement'. 
Best Wishes,
Paul Hurt.

 

That was the email, not read by Lu Skerratt-Love. What about the letter? There was a chance she did read the letter. What was the tone of the letter?

 

The Written Warning, Community Protection Notice did state,

 When you write these emails and letters it causes great upset to Lu and her colleagues at work. This is not fair and certainly not right to do so. It is important that you realise how much you are upsetting / distressing Lu with this conduct.

 

This is the content of the Letter delivered to the Church Army Head Office, addressed to Dr Ling. There has only been a single letter from me. The reference in the Written Warning to 'letters' is factually incorrect. The tone of the letter is forthright, more so than the email, a note of examperation wil be detected, but the letter is not at all abusive.


Dear Dr Ling,

There are matters which I need to bring to your attention, and the attention of Lu Skerratt-Love. I can't use the most convenient method, for me, email, since you've blocked my emails. This is simply a short preliminary note. I don't discuss in any detail these matters

Instead of using paper and envelope, buying a stamp and using the post, I've chosen instead to call at the Church Army building and deliver this
note in person and I intend to use this method whenever I can justify a further communication to you or to Lu Skerratt-Love. [I've never made any further communication with Tim Ling, Lu Skerratt-Love or anyone else at Church Army Sheffield. This was the only letter they've received.] I've decided further to make use of 'open' communication, without enclosure in an envelope. The matters I need to bring to your attention aren't confidential.

Banning, blocking and attempts at blatant censorship should be avoided by people in any organization which values its reputation. Your decision to block emails from me was completely unjustifiable. All I had done was to send emails to a few people and organizations to inform them of my concerns about the proposal to set up a garden church at the Morley Street Allotment site. The reasons I gave and the evidence I gave were to do with matters of allotment law, security and safety. I've documented the issues in detail and published them on my Website. The documentation will be extended to take note of future developments. The people and organizations who received my emails - few in number - could be expected to find the issue of a garden church relevant, for example, St Marks Church.

 

Lu Skerratt-Love had publicized the issue on the St Marks Church Website.The tone of my emails was courteous. I used Lu Skerratt-Love's Church army email address because I had no alternative. This was the only email address I could find.I felt at the time that it was unwise of her not to make available an alternative email address.

Lu Skerratt-Love's decision to complain to the police, her attempt to have me remove material from my own Website, was disastrously misguided, like your decision to block my emails. Lu Skerratt-Love's twitter page is full of complaints against the police but she chose to turn to the police (as an alternative to prayer, perhaps, or to supplement prayer). This, to me, was wasting police time. I don't claim that it
was wasting police time in the strict legal sense but if people demand action from the police for the flimsiest of reasons, or no good reason at all, or for thoroughly bad reasons, then the police have less time available for all the other issues, far more important issues, which they have to deal with, such as doing something to curb the excesses of Extinction Rebellion, rape, violent crime, and many more. [I don't equate the excesses of Extinction Rebellion with rape or violent crime, of course. This is a short list with examples which are very different in their degree of seriousness.]

I don't make demands myself, although I think that an apology is due from Lu Skerratt-Love and yourself. If you find the arguments and evidence I've put forward on my Website unpersuasive, then by all means let me have - better still, publicize - your counter arguments and evidence.

As I say, this is only a preliminary stage. I've already spent a great deal of time and effort on these matters and I'm willing to do far more. Any necessary communication with you or Lu Skerratt-Love will be by personal delivery of a note. [I didn't deliver any more notes/letters.]

I hope you will be able to bring this note to the attention of Lu Skerratt-Love. [In the event, I provided a copy for Lu Skerratt-Love.] Obviously, you're free to bring it to the attention of other people as well.

Best Wishes,

Paul Hurt

 

6/10/21

Extract from email sent to Allotment Officer, Sheffield City Council concerning a proposal to set up a garden church in allotments near to my allotments.

 

The Garden Church Facebook page mentions at one point the use of the land to promote what is referred to as 'mission.' The word has a special meaning for Christians. This is a commonly cited definition:

'A Christian mission is an organized effort to spread Christianity to new converts.'

The Facebook Page of the Garden Church has a photograph of an existing 'allotment church,' showing Jill Duff, the Bishop of Lancaster, with adults and children. Three of the children and one adult were baptized by the bishop at an event at the 'allotment church.' It's completely clear that one of the main aims of this allotment church is to convert non-Christians.

This is how Sharon Collins, who is associated with the 'allotment church,' describes the 'mission' of the allotment church. She moved to an estate and then

' We began prayer walking in earnest around the estate, laying hands on and claiming places for Jesus and just crying out, when we got given the use of a disused allotment in the community, which means we could once again meet to worship and we became a very public and visible church. 

"It's a very strategic position that God has thrown the doors out for us. So it is wonderful to be there. There's some fencing that surrounds the allotment and we use that as well for mission. [Bold print supplied by me.] So we often put posters up with Bible verses on them or with words of encouragement on them.'

Jill Duff, the Bishop of Lancaster who attended and baptized at the 'allotment church' has views which should be more widely known. She's an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage and supports a view of sexual relations which has now become very uncommon in this country, but not in the Church of England. She has conservative evangelical views according to which the vast mass of people are destined for hell - only those who accept Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour are 'saved.

As I've pointed out, Sheffield City Council is under no obligation to make land available for 'missionary' work. Its obligation is very different - to supply allotment land to those wanting to cultivate it for (primarily) fruit and vegetables. People who take on allotments will have a wide range of views on religion and related matters. It's completely unfair to allow a group with one particular set of views to make allotments into a temporary church.


'You would not wish for such conduct for your loved ones.'

 This statement appears in the section 'Details of the Conduct' in the 'Community Protection Notice - Written Warning' issued to me.

The 'conduct' mentioned is, as I've made clear, a grotesque allegation based upon falsification. It happens that the 'Community Protection Notice - Written Warning' (CPN) was issued at a time when the plight of two of my loved ones were a major factor in my life. Here, I only mention - briefly - one of the two, my mother.

The two Police Constables who came to my door to deliver the Community Protection Notice - Written Warning came on the day after my mother - and the mother of my sister and one surviving brother - had been admitted to the frailty ward of a hospital. She was 96 years old and for a long time, her health had been worsening.

I made efforts to contest the issuing of the Written Warning against a background of acute family concerns, then. Later, our mother was admitted to a different ward. On a Friday, we were informed that our mother could not possibly survive longer than a few days. By Monday at the latest, she would have died.


Ii decided to call at Snig Hill Police Station in Sheffield, a main station, to ask if I could speak to a senior police officer, available,  according to the Website. I'd had enough of email communications. i thought it important to discuss these actions of South Yorkshire Police in person. I was told that there was no senior police officer available at the time.

At all other times, I, and my brother and sister, have had a realistic as well as emotional attitude. We have fully recognized the inevitability of these events. We knew that our mother could never be expected to live for much longer. Even so, the conjunction of the police action against me and this family matter had an effect on me. At the police station, I quickly became distraught. The woman at the enquiry desk was very understanding and handled the matter very well.

 

After leaving the police station, I went to the hospital and found that mother had died a short time before. My brother and sister joined me there. I consider that the statement 'You would not wish for such conduct for your loved ones' should never have been included - but none of the 'Details of the conduct' should have been included. The Written Warning should never have been sent. It was sent without any attempt whatsoever to elicit my testimony. It was sent when I had already made it completely clear that the complainant had already made complaints on the same matter which were based on false allegations.

 

I consider that Alan Billings has failed to consider the great difficulties which may arise when people are encouraged to complain about other people in situations where it would be completely impractical to devote the necessary resources to investigate the complaints adequately and where the expectation of police action is unrealistic. However, with the active encouragement of the South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner, action that people with common sense would consider completely unrealistic seems often to be regarded by the Police-Commissioner partnership as completely realistic. Do matters of cost deter them? Do they ever think that the money spent on these cases could be better spent, on more important and more urgent matters?  But these social engineers have their ambitious - grandiose - plans and are determined to force them through, it seems.

 

 I consider that Alan Billings has failed to give nearly enough thought to the realities and the practical difficulties. If time is spent on these matters, then other matters must often be neglected. I consider that Alan Billings has encouraged a situation in which injustices are more likely. This brief comment is amplified and developed  in various places on other  pages of the site. But this issue is only one of a significant number of issues concerning the inadequacies of Dr Billings - as I see the matter - which are discussed on these pages, with argument and evidence.

 

 

 

  South Yorkshire Police, the Police and Crime Commissioner,
 the Police and Crime Panel, the Independent Ethics Panel