Do you know who this is?

Detectives are hoping the public can help identify a man found dead in a caravan near Beckingham.

The body of the man, who was no older than 50, was discovered by a member of the public in a static caravan on a building site off Gringley Road at around midday last Thursday (13 March 2014).

A post-mortem examination was completed yesterday (Monday 24 March 2014) and established that the man had been dead for more than six weeks.

He was around 5ft 8ins to 5ft 10ins tall, of medium to slim build and had collar-length dark wavy hair. His ethnicity is unclear.

He has no discerning marks on his body — no tattoos or piercings — and there were no obvious signs of injury.

He was dressed in a grey Slazenger round collared t-shirt under a blue Umbro zipped tracksuit top. Over this was a blue Levi denim jacket. He was also wearing blue BugJo jeans and white Slazenger trainers.

Detective Inspector Ash Wilson said: “Following the pathologists findings we’re treating this death as unexplained, but at this stage do not believe there was any foul play.

“We think this unknown man may have entered the caravan for shelter and subsequently died there.

“He had nothing but the clothes on his back with him. No phone, no wallet, nothing to identify him. He does not match the description of any of our missing people and no one has called us concerned for the welfare of a relative or friend matching his description.

“We have run his fingerprints on our systems with out a hit and we are now pursuing DNA testing. We are also circulating the scant details we do have with other forces and Interpol.

“In the meantime I would like to appeal to anyone who thinks they may know who he is, or has any information to call us.  

If you know who the man is or have any information contact police on 101, quoting incident 286 of 13 March 2014, or call Crimestoppers anonymously 0800 555 111.

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Carbon Footprint

Well you might have known that sooner or later the closure of the council depot in Misterton would rear its head again.  Sometimes I wonder if some of those in charge in councils have a grain of common sense.  How many times have you seen council worker in Misterton working in areas like Tuxford and the like, when they could have been working on or around home turf.

Now how far will they have to travel, which given that Misterton is the top end of North Notts, will be a fair distance.  What about in the middle of winter, we got off light this year, might be up to our goolies in snow next year and no equipment in the village to get rid of the snow.  How long will we have to wait for our roads to be cleared.  Our local lads have to battle their way out of the village to get to another depot in some far flung area, probably meeting half way those that are coming to clear our roads, assuming they don't leave us to fend for ourselves.  What about our sandbags, where are they going to be kept?  Absolute madness as usual.  Lets hope we get a few complaints to our County Councillor before it is too late.

Do you think they will probably put another load of houses up on the site?

The Elephant in the Village

Well unless your eyesight is better than mine, I still do not see a for sale sign in front of the Victoria Institute, which is bad.  Communication is a great tool, tell people what's going off and they don't get shirty in the workplace.  Works just as well in this situation as well.  Tell us what is happening or we just think the worst and then we get nasty when the worst happens.  As somebody has already pointed out to me this appears to be a secret society with the majority of the trustees hanging onto this building for dear life.  If there are any members with a grain of common sense they should put this building up for sale immediately.

I suspect the real reason is that they are waiting to see what happens with the old library and if this falls through they will turn their sights on the VI.  I say they because there are no Chinese walls with these trustees some who are also parish council members.  Public vote to sell or not,  they think they know better.

Assuming they do sell to the parish council, what then.  Too small for anything of value, too expensive to rebuild, unless you are then going to resell, not to mention the lack of parking.  I suspect they are fermenting the idea of turning it into a new Misterton Centre but at what cost and certainly no shared costs as currently exist with the Police and Bassetlaw.  You can then say bye bye to a police office and presence in Misterton.  

Still they know best and what's good for us plebs!

Trouble and Strife

Well a little more gossip from around the village. This little snippet came via a pint of the amber nectar and as with all gossip, you only get half a story so perhaps the rest of it is much more interesting.

It relates to the parish council meeting on Tuesday night when the chairman asked our District Councillor to elaborate on the harassment suffered to her and others prior to the last election.  I seem to remember this was mentioned in her last newsletter.  Well quite correctly she indicated that she couldn't talk about it because it was subject to a police enquiry, at which point the Beckingham resident councillor got up and left the room like his arse was on fire.  Others, who were named but I shan't,  turned a very unpleasant shade of  colour. 

All very intriguing and I shall listen with interest to the follow up.

Wall of Silence

Well our Parish Magazine had it's usual report from the parish council, and there was absolutely nothing in of any interest, certainly nothing to do with plans for the future or what they are going to spend on or have spent on that might interest us.  I find this very strange, especially since as far as I am aware there was no Annual Report and chairman's report prepared and distributed throughout the village for 2013.  Just what are they hiding?  Even the district councillor can get regular updates issued around the village and throughout the year off her own bat, something that I might add no other district councillor has done before.

For a council that is supposed to be big on transparency they have failed miserably.  There is no wonder they haven't re-applied for the prestigious Quality Accreditation, because I suspect they wouldn't qualify.

Another bit of gossip also heard, and very likely true, regarding the Packet Inn houses, which do not appear to have come up for sale yet.  Apparently some of the houses are built on land belonging to another party and they have also put cabling across British Rail's land.  Another rumour I heard some time ago relating to that same site.was that a certain party had linked up to the water main and pushed piping through the railway bank to the other side.   Had your water bill yet?