27 November (Part 1) - It was a good day for spreading the news
Please excuse me if I sound a bit like Teresa O’Neill
bragging about winning
the election but I shall try to avoid being power crazed as she appears to
be. A blogger’s power against Bexley council is very limited. Its history includes
requesting the arrest of critics by its servants in blue and
interfering
with the work of the Crown Prosecution Service following councillor Peter Craske’s arrest on suspicion of distributing
homophobic obscenities.
Bexley council certainly won’t be caring about residents two and a half years before an election.
And what can Sidcup residents do? Kick out the only Tory councillors who have
genuinely fought for them?
All a blogger can do is his research, report and hope the message gradually
spreads. For that, yesterday was a good day.
Below is the day long trace of visitors to
the blog about
the mysteriously closed Burr Farm park. BiB visitor numbers generally rise gradually through the
day with 4 p.m. through to 10 p.m. being nearly twice as busy as ‘office hours’.
While I briefly watched visitor numbers in real time yesterday evening up to 20
were arriving every minute. The good thing is that over the day as a whole 55%
of visitors had never read Bexley is Bonkers before.
The blog went on line at 17:09.
The story spread via Facebook more quickly (over 3,000 users reached) than it did via Twitter and to more people, for which I take no credit. The Bexley is Bonkers Facebook page has
been under new management for the past two weeks.
The reaction varied from shock to resignation that politicians always get up to no
good, so what’s new. One comment was prefixed with “If this is true”.
I would hope that after six years BiB has achieved some sort of reputation for
never making things up and providing enough evidence for readers to check things
through for themselves, but it is a fair enough comment. All that is known that
is indisputably true is that Burr Farm and Old Farm parks are of similar size and one is a
Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) and the other isn’t.
It is also known that Burr Farm is permanently locked, the pictures were taken
yesterday, and one resident whose garden backs on to the park confirmed it. The
park is bounded by Church Road and number 125 is the address council leader Teresa O’Neill uses when standing for election.
It is also listed under her
Register of Interests.
Beyond that nothing is certain. It could be that Burr Farm park is permanently
locked while all the others are left open night and day because Teresa O’Neill values the security
it brings to her back garden, or possibly it is
riddled with mine shafts like Old
Manor Way and could swallow a dog walker at any moment.
The real question is whether or not it was ever on the provisional
list of land surplus to requirements and if not why not?
It is a question I cannot ask because I have already been threatened with the
vexatious label for my average of a question every two years. It’s a weapon all
corrupt councils use against those inclined to probe it too deeply - and the
idiot at No. 10 seems to think it’s a good idea to hand them even more powers.
Presumably however, it is a question the Save Old Farm Campaigners will be asking.