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News and Comment July 2014

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11 July (Part 2) - The head that doesn’t roll

Following the reference yesterday to the supposed links between the Deputy Director of Children's Social Care, our esteemed council leader and only lesser heads rolling when Bexley suffers yet another child related calamity, another email emerged from the Pink Palace. It wonders how I know these things, confirms them and goes on to fill in some detail. The fact is I don’t know these things but when several commentators all point in the same direction it is tempting to assume there is no smoke without fire.

It’s possible that Bexley council has an over exuberant gossip machine and everyone has their own pet theory and it’s probably best if I do not reveal this one. It might inadvertently identify the source and in any case the reason for the presumed link is unimportant. The real news is that its existence may contribute to what is too easily forgotten. The number of headline snatching child deaths in Bexley under the current regime is seriously worrying. I may not have been able to hear much of yesterday’s Audit Committee meeting but the problems in that area did not go unremarked.

Speaking of headline snatching, the News Shopper is now reporting that 360 full time jobs are to be lost as Teresa O’Neill wields her rather selective axe, not the 300 in the General Purposes agenda for next week. The same article refers to a four year management pay freeze - with exemptions for jobs given even grander titles presumably. No sign yet of the promised reduction in councillor numbers, just a new handout of £3,000 a piece to six scrutiny committee vice-chairmen.
Promises
A £1·5 million saving looks like no more than 60 or 70 jobs to me, not 360. So that’ll be another Tory election lie then.

 

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