29 June (Part 2) - End of the month Newsreel
Another
month has flashed by and what has it provided? Not a lot really, even
Will Tuckley failed to get a mention so let’s put that right straight away. Have
you ever wondered what he does for the quarter million a year he costs the
borough? The Bexley Council Monitoring Group members who organised the petition
against Tuckley being the
sixth highest paid public authority employee in
the country did. They put in a Freedom of Information request asking for a copy of
his business diary for the month of May. Should be an easy one for any competent
council to comply with but in a day or two’s time it will tip into the
unacceptably late category.
It’s a rather nice question. If he edits out entries it will looks as though
the
councillors for Lesnes Abbey were even more right than they knew and if he
adds false entries someone will likely do some checking. Perhaps we will
suddenly find he has been on four weeks’ leave.
Cabinet Member for Public Realm - councillor Peter Craske
Councillor Craske resigned
his cabinet post last Sunday for personal reasons and I’m not sure whether I should be pleased or not. He is the idiot who
signed off the wrecking of Abbey Road, Belvedere
without consulting
those living nearest to it - those further away were sent a leaflet - and subsequently
ignored every single objection made by residents. The lies told about that scheme and the
attempt to fool me into believing they met all the requirements specified by expert
reviews of road safety (†) is what prompted me to start this blog. I quite often wish I hadn’t.
On the other hand without the Purple Pygmy the blog would have been a far duller
place. He has not been on top form lately but his
constant lying used to provide
an easy source for entertainment and ridicule. I think we might miss him.
At the time of writing the name of his successor has not reached me. God help us
if it is some ignorant thicko like councillor Val Clark who I saw in action last
night. No one could be impressed by that.
† It was very bad luck
for Craske that the author’s boss was a friend of mine.
Where
would we be without Bexley Cabs this month? All good fun perhaps for those who are
able to watch from afar, but essentially it is just one big neighbours’ dispute.
When the subject first arose it looked like Bexley council might be caught out
by a contentious application by the deputy leader’s son but so far as can be seen
from here they have never shown any sign of not applying the law correctly. Now
that the Enforcement Notice has been served there is probably nothing more to say.
I made some new friends because of this squabble but I retained a sneaking
admiration for the man himself. A Cheeky Chappy just like his dad. If only he
had pitched his tent somewhere else. I hope he eventually extricates himself from
the mess and makes a go of his business; just not in the middle of Bexley please.
When I passed his office just before ten thirty last night business was in full swing.
I was tempted to get a quick ride home. Not that it was slow on the 229, the
driver was a complete menace, causing me to injure my elbow as he was forced to
an emergency stop in Erith’s West Street and began to scare me with the speed
reached in the Craske narrowed Abbey Road.
Note: I found navigation through the council’s website to
their Planning Portal which they call Public Access to be unreliable at best
so I added a direct link from the Bonkers’ Home page menu. Not unnaturally it is
under Links>Council. So far it has worked perfectly for me.
A month ago I was worrying about complying with the new EU law on website
cookies. I said that Bexley council’s website was not compliant and I knew that
Bonkers wasn’t. Saying “this site uses cookies, if you don’t like it bugger off”
which was close to what I had said was only going to be a solution while the
Information Commission had bigger fish to fry. And then he relented. Suddenly it
was accepted that the EU rules were pretty much unworkable and the concept of
‘presumed compliance’ was adopted. Basically, tell visitors that cookies are in use
and if readers don’t disappear at a rate of knots, then assume they must be happy customers.
Has there ever been another case of the UK not gold-plating EU law?
Twice yesterday I was asked in the street certain questions about Bexley
council’s obscene blog. Or to be pedantic the one they must have had something
to do with. I know that someone has been interviewed about it but that’s it. I
know what some people have said (I don’t live in a bubble) but not a shred of
evidence has come my way. In case you haven’t noticed I am not on particularly
good terms with Bexley council, so they are unlikely to tell me anything. When
someone else asked a question Will Tuckley insisted he was entirely unaware of
any investigation - so very obviously that has to be true. The police absolutely
cannot say a word to me and the Detective Sergeant in charge of the investigation
must be a damned fine poker player. It’s not worth asking a question and generally I don’t.
There have been rumours and circumstantial evidence in the past and to the best of
my knowledge all that created was false trails and unnecessary embarrassment. There
is no way I want to get into that again. Please accept that I don’t have any answers,
only guesswork, and one of my guesses is that the best source of local news will be
the News Shopper. They may have their methods but no one tells me anything!