19 April (Part 1) - More questions, a few answers
After Bexley
Conservatives cheated the public out of the theoretical opportunity to ask
them questions last week the Councillors were allowed 15 minutes to ask what
they could have done at any time with a phone call or an email. To that extent it
is all grandstanding and it is easy to conclude that all Council meetings are a farce.
Daniel Francis (Labour, Belvedere) was due to ask Councillor Craske about
children’s playgrounds but the old rogue had invented an entirely new way of dodging
questions. He wasn’t there. It then fell to Nicola Taylor (Labour, Erith) to
mount her favourite hobby horse. Housing. The Local Government Ombudsman had
said that Bexley was guilty of maladministration. “Were those cases the tip of an iceberg?”
Cabinet Member Sue Gower (Bexleyheath) denied the suggestion. There were about 7,000 housing
related phone enquiries in March 2022 and some errors were “unfortunately
inevitable”. Her department gets more complimentary letters than complaints, 13
of which went to the Ombudsman last year and five upheld. The compensation ordered by the LGO was “nominal”.
Councillor Caroline Newton (Conservative, East Wickham) went down the by now
familiar arse-licking route. “Would the Cabinet Member please tell us about the
visit to the borough by Andrea Leadsom MP?” (I suppose the question mark makes it
a question but not one that would be acceptable from a genuine member of the public.)
Do you want to know the answer? Thought not! But maybe the following snippet should be brought to your attention.
In an arguably disgusting malice aforethought moment a desperate for attention Newton stooped lower
than ever before to ask Cabinet Member Read (West Heath) to elaborate on a Labour Party Tweet
which claimed that their MP in Erith & Thamesmead had not been advised of Leadsom’s visit.
(To hell with purdah, let’s connive with Read must have been uppermost in Newton’s mind.)
Read said the Tweet was a lie and who better than him to identify one? He said
that Labour MP Abena Opong-Asare had been notified by email ten days before Leadsom’s
visit and her office acknowledged it.
Think hard before putting an X against Newton’s name in East Wickham, there are seven alternatives.
Councillor Brian Bishop (Conservative, Barnehurst) was also a purdah buster but he may have had the
sympathy of many residents when he asked what impact Khan’s iniquitous ULEZ was having on the NHS.
He was reminded by Cabinet Member Gower that the NHS Trust
had already reported to Council that “there were huge implications for their
workforce particularly nurses and an extra £12·50 a day is just not doable for
the lower paid staff”. They now park in Plumstead and walk to the Queen
Elizabeth Hospital. “ULEZ is having a profound effect on the Trust’s ability to
recruit and retain staff.”
Twisting the knife into Khan as deeply as possible Councillor Bishop asked his
supplementary question. “What is the effect on shift workers?”
As he knew already, they have to pay twice for an overnight shift. Either £25 or a £150 fine.
Councillor Nicola Taylor defended the charge on health grounds
(but no reference to nurses being priced out of their jobs). Councillor Gower
responded with reference to cars becoming progressively less polluting and there
being no need to extend the ULEZ to the South Circular and beyond. (I will eat
my hat if it does not prove to be a precursor to extension of the congestion
charge. Nothing else justifies the infrastructure costs.)
My voting pendulum swung sharply to the right again.