Bexley’s
recent Places Scrutiny Committee was chaired by Councillor Cheryl Bacon - whose
name once appeared in a Misconduct in Public Office file submitted to the
Crown Prosecution Service - following the elevation of Councillor Seymour - who is
on record as signing an inaccurate police statement and continuing to support it in the Crown Court - to a Cabinet position.
Neither was sanctioned by the discredited Boris Johnson’s favourite London
Councillor but for reasons unknown the outspoken Councillor John Davey was
expelled
from the party for an ill-judged joke.
You may conclude that double standards and maybe an element of dishonesty
pervades Bexley’s Conservative leadership but if you are sitting on the fence consider this.
When former Labour Councillor Danny Hackett on his own initiative resigned from
that party the Council Leader took away his Committee Memberships,
however John Davey was able to grace the Places Committee unimpeded.
It was good to see him there but it is further evidence that Bexley Council is
never far away from double dealing and general dishonesty.
The first item on the Agenda was a presentation by that bane of residents’
lives, Thames Water. How many millions did they cost our economy by their massive disruption
to Sidcup’s road transport infrastructure throughout much of this year? (It
should come to an end in a month’s time but resume in February 2023.)
It was revealed that around 70% of their pipes etc. continue to be of Victorian
vintage and their representative came equipped with
a slide show. Possibly good
news is that Thames Water has sacked its road digging contractors and taken the job back in house.
The first question came from Councillor June Slaughter (Conservative, Sidcup)
who naturally enough referred to the protracted water works in The Green which
caused chaos to tens of thousands. Work went on from the 3rd August
until 30th September and is still not completed. I was pleased to hear that Bexley Council is at last getting
tough with Thames Water, they managed to cause me a great deal of inconvenience too.
TW said that the long periods of little or no activity on site is caused by the unforeseen.
Often safety related. Councillor Slaughter thought it would be of benefit if
local Councillors were kept informed of such problems.
Councillor Davey proved his worth by asking about broken Fire Hydrants which
Thames Water had failed to repair. A fire in his ward could not be tackled
immediately because a hydrant was rusted shut. He also asked about water
availability. In West London it is impeding housing development, Does the same apply here?
The aim is to repair faulty Fire Hydrants within 60 days. (No comment
necessary!) Water availability is an issue but new infrastructure will keep potential problems at bay.
Councillor Lucia-Hennis (or Loser-Hennis if you take the webcast subtitles
literally) said that Crayford was closed for three weeks by Thames Water and
unattended leaks are widespread. Thames Water had never made any contact with her
despite what was claimed during the slide show.
Councillor Cameron Smith had another communications problem in Bexley Village
which was Thames Water telling business owners different stories to that related
to Councillors. As a result of road closures some business had gone whole days
without taking any money. What compensation is on offer? The answer was that there
is no legal liability for destroying small businesses because of road closures,
(Flooding is a different matter.)
All the evidence suggests that Thames Water will remain
the least customer focused of the utility company for some time to come.