26 February (Part 4) - When she is not lying she is exaggerating. Is there a difference?
Everything
you need to know about Bexley council’s budget consultation has been published.
The figures are absolutely clear. Including organisations, 663 ‘people’ responded
in some way or other, however not everyone answered every one of the 23
questions. The biggest response was on the subject of the archives. 342 people
gave their opinion on that.
Overall 2,881 answers were in favour of the council’s proposals and 1,932 were
against them which means that those in favour formed just under 60%.
The council
rounded that up to two thirds. That degree of agreement can only be achieved if
the Don’t Knows are deemed to be in favour. But according to a report in today’s
News Shopper that is not the full extent of Bexley’s subterfuge.
Council leader Teresa O’Neill is quoted as saying that almost 1,000 residents were
involved in the consultation. That is simply not true; fewer than two thirds of
that figure took part. Presumably Teresa is as
usual banking on resident apathy and the failure of journalists to check up on
what she says. Few residents will have a copy of the consultation report.
My own extract of the questions and answers is
available as an Excel file. See
if you can discover where the FC (Fibbing Councillor) gets her figure from.
Click image for the News Shopper’s report.