10 November (Part 2) - The price of cuts
I
think I could be developing Stockholm Syndrome with councillor Peter Craske.
His home telephone line may have been used for
posting obscenities about me and
three other Bexley residents apparently without him noticing but does he deserve
all the punishment heaped upon him since?
Closing down children’s play areas, parks, libraries, the garden waste service
and Albion Road are all unpopular measures that have landed in his lap.
Today he is behind a spate of Press Releases designed to put the best gloss on things.
Bostall Library. The service is to be ‘enhanced’ by a community group.
North Heath Library. Eco Communities has grabbed this one to add to its Bexley and Howbury libraries.
The
closure of the Registry Office in Sidcup. The service has been operated by
Kent County Council for several years but it is to be moved out. Another building that can be sold.
It was inevitable that sooner or later the savage cuts to the grant to Bexley
Heritage Trust would reach a critical level and sure enough
Danson
House is to be taken back in house by Bexley council. Councillor Craske
provides “an assurance that the Council will continue to support the Trust’s work at Hall Place”.
Shutting Sidcup Manor House, cutting the grant to Danson House and filling it
with the Registrar’s staff looks like quite a cunning move. Maybe the downside will be restricted public access.