17 October - Polling Day in Belvedere
I
normally vote before 9 a.m. because the Polling Station is literally next door
to me in a westerly direction but today was different. There were too many
things to fit into a crowded schedule. While it was still dark outside I began listening to last night’s Adults’ Scrutiny
meeting. Towards the end there was a bit of politicking; Councillor Wendy Perfect (Labour) referred to the
overspends and said “we can’t go on like that. Something has gotta give, we’re gonna run out of money"”
Cabinet Member Melvyn Seymour said Wendy’s figure for the overspend was wrong, it was
not £6·83 million it was £2·642. “We must hope that the Funding Review is
fair but you are right all budgets are under pressure. Increasing numbers of
residents are requiring our services.” He hoped “the new Government will get a
grip. We are the lowest recipient of health care [funds] in London and fourth
lowest in the whole country. We manage our budgets very well. Now is your chance
to lobby your Government. Money is there for train drivers and from taking it away from
pensioners”. This provoked loud but largely unintelligible shouting from the Socialists opposite.
The Cabinet Member said the Government had choices to make and their decision
was to rob pensioners of their Winter Fuel Allowance. I heard “thousands of
pensioners would lose it” before a number of Labour voices drowned him out and the Chairman called for order.
Personally I cannot get my head around the fact that Labour Councillors who I
once rewarded as normal decent human beings are clamouring for many fellow residents to freeze to death.
Few will be able to look at them in the same way again.
I returned home around 1:30 to find two Conservative leaflets poked through my letter box so after 20
minutes or so I went out to vote against Labour’s inexperienced candidate
who has the misfortune to be standing for election immediately after
the disaster which has been Labour’s first 100 days. Nothing but lies and broken promises.
A formal report on that meeting is several days away.
Note: I am going to exclude Leader Stefano Borella
from my list of Labour disappointments because I have not heard him supporting
freezing pensioners - and I still think he is among the friendliest of Councillors.
Taking
up a little of today was this van. There has been a problem with clapped
out vans clogging local roads for the past couple of years. There is one parked
on the pavement outside my house right now. I doubt they ever pay the fines,
there are so many PCNs it would bankrupt the owners.
Another was added to the fleet yesterday and it immediately attracted my
attention because the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice
is based in Farnham, Surrey and the 01252 telephone code is etched in my memory
because it was once part of my own number.
More to the point, my sister is a volunteer there.
When the van was still there this morning I called her to ask why one of her vans was
in far away Belvedere. She called the charity boss and he
called me around mid-day.
The van had been condemned and sold to a scrap merchant who said he would
strip the engine for spares and crush what was left.
Clearly he reneged on the agreement. The charity boss was aware that it had made its way
to Belvedere because the police had tracked him down via its registration plate. The old van had been involved in a
crime and I was told that the engine lost all its oil so it had been pulled into
a car park where the crew had been seen draining the sumps of parked vehicles, Then it disappeared.
By a series of lucky chances it has been found again. The charity has
informed Bexleyheath police so it is very possible that nothing more will be
done about it; stuck in a queue behind
Hammergate. The owners won’t be reading this blog because they are not English speakers - I have tried!
If it begins to get tickets for footpath parking Bexley Council may as well not bother.