12 November (Part 3) - Full council meeting. The left overs
Item
8 on the Agenda of last Wednesday’s council meeting was for things deferred from
the July meeting
because of lack of time. Councillor Cheryl Bacon wanted to show her Waitrose credentials
by putting forward a motion about Sidcup High Street in general and Waitrose in particular.
“The council urges Waitrose to rethink [its commercial decision to avoid Sidcup] and looks
forward to welcoming them to Sidcup soon.”
Councillor June Slaughter seconded the motion and made an impassioned speech in
favour of the upmarket grocer. It is easy to imagine a lady such as Mrs. Slaughter
as a Waitrose customer and she had “sighed with relief when Waitrose
signed the lease” only to be disappointed by the “lack of openness on the part
of Waitrose management”. They gave no warning of their change of heart, “the
news just leaked out”. Now we have “yet another empty shop which makes Sidcup
look like a ghost town”.
Mrs. Slaughter is not wrong but whether Bexley council
is right to become so intimately involved in a commercial decision by the John
Lewis Partnership seems politically dubious to me. I have no issue with
Mr. & Mrs. Slaughter as the locally elected representatives starting a petition but
for the whole Conservative administration of Bexley to take over the council’s
propaganda machine to please some upmarket shoppers who probably vote Conservative looks
a bit too like
Dame Shirley Porter in Westminster to me.
Next
on the bandwagon was deputy mayoress Aileen Beckwith who I had assumed might
be more of a Poundland shopper than a Waitrose patron. She said that “not a
single person in Sidcup did not want Waitrose” to a small chorus of “well I
didn’t” and a single “playing to the crowd” from the public gallery. She was
“heartily disappointed”.
Councillor Stefano Borella, not usually a man with whom I would align myself
politically, tried to make the point that Bexley has had no “We want Tescos”
petition so why “We want Waitrose”? Cabinet member Linda Bailey tried to shut
him up with a point of order but was herself stopped in her tracks. Councillor
Borella asked why the council was authorised to invoke all its “propaganda
machinery” to encourage what many would say is a Conservative cause. He may well
ask but he got no answer. The council’s war cry is to be amended to “Waiting for Waitrose”
and the vote for and against the motion encouraging Waitrose was divided
precisely along party lines.
A second motion was put forward by councillor Chris Ball. “This council resolves
to support The Armed Forces Covenant” which in the week before Armistice Sunday
should be pushing against an open door but you never know with Bexley council so
I was relieved when councillor James Hunt stood up to second the motion. A man
who champions the Scout movement and a former member of the Air Training Corps one
would think must be a double yolked good egg. Fortunately he didn’t disappoint.
The motion was carried unanimously. At least I think it was. The clown who calls
himself mayor forgot to take the vote and no one noticed for a while.