14 April - Which Councillors might put residents before party? Not many
After arguing that when voting at a local Council election
one should take responsiveness
to enquiries from the public into account I looked back at my own correspondence records
to see if the Councillor wheat could be extracted from the chaff.
I had in mind rating current Councillors on a percentage scale based on whether
they replied to emails or not with some shading between 0 and 100%. It did
not work out too well and proved not a lot. For the record I have exchanged emails with 42 different Councillors
over more than 16 years but half have left the Council, hence only the 22 shown below.
In an attempt to rejuvenate a failing idea I added a + sign to the names who had at some point or another
initiated a conversation but that too failed to provide an interesting story.
A possible improvement was to add a second + sign to those who had initiated the very first conversation. A surprising eleven of them meaning that conversations
between me and Councillors are more often initiated by them than me. However it gives an unjustified score to
Councillors Amaning, Day and Perfect (all Labour) who had only copied me into something
circulated more widely and to which I need not and did not reply.
Peter Reader doesn’t really deserve a zero. I wrote to nine Conservative
Councillors who had witnessed an unlawful act in the Council Chamber seeking their support.
In response Bexley Council sent a defamatory Press Release to the News Shopper about
me and another resident allegedly rampaging and threatening Councillors which was absolutely beyond the pale.
The police subsequently investigated and sent a file on Bexley Council to the CPS.
The Press Release was a total lie and presumably the Councillors were under instruction from their Leader to ignore me. Party before honesty. None replied
apart from Peter Reader who sent an email apologising for not being allowed to
reply. I suppose that makes him a relatively good guy. (Of the other eight four
are now dead and four retired.)
Three more Councillor witnesses had emailed me earlier to confirm that far from
rampaging and threatening I had not left my seat or opened my mouth. Bexley
Council never could stop lying.
Christoforides Kurtis probably doesn’t deserve a 100% ++. He has only
ever written to me to tell me off for being too harsh on him. He was probably right.
One of the earliest correspondents was June Slaughter but never anything about
Council business except that once she confirmed my assertion that Full Council
is rehearsed theatre. Our correspondence was entirely nosy stuff about my past
history and telling me about her holidays and long weekends away. Sadly her husband’s
failing health but never once a Council secret.
When the despicable Restore Britain Councillor Maxine Fothergill told the
outrageous lie about me which resulted in a police charge, June, a retired
solicitor, offered her support constantly and phoned me on the day before I was due in Court to wish me luck.
I don’t think Sidcup could ask for a more supportive Councillor than June.
James Hunt had some interesting stuff to say about Fothergill, his descriptions
seemed to be very fair to me.
Of the 22 names listed below only 13 are hoping to be
re-elected in May. Where’s Frazer Brooks? This is an email analysis.
Frazer earns a 100% ++ on X Direct Message
So this blog has not worked out anything like what had been planned but here’s the score table anyway.
Maybe something more interesting will turn up tomorrow.
Councillor’s name
Andy Dourmoush
Anna Day
Cameron Smith
Caroline Newton
Chris Ball
Christoforides Kurtis
Esther Amaning
James Hunt
Jeremy Fosten
John Davey
June Slaughter
Lisa Moore
Mabel Ogundayo
Melvin Seymour
Nicola Taylor
Peter Reader
Richard Diment
Sally Hinkley
Stefano Borella
Steven Hall
Sue Gower
Wendy Perfect
Response record
100% ++
100% ++
90% +
80%
100% +
100% ++
100% ++
100% ++
100% ++
100%
100% +
100% +
100% ++
100%
100% ++
0%
100% ++
100% ++
100% +
100% ++
100% ++
100% ++