3 November - Monitoring the miscreants
It’s Wednesday so it’s the News Shopper’s bash Bexley day. Page 11 is interesting, it highlights three residents who have been trying to squeeze embarrassing information from the council using the Freedom of Information Act. These must be the people that councillor Campbell tried to gag by making threats against them. Among the facts exposed is that council staff claimed £687,174 last year for driving around the borough. Except for the Northern tip of Thamesmead everywhere in Bexley is less than half an hour on a bus from the Civic Centre. 39 out of 70 senior council staff were paid bonuses on top of their salary in 2008/9. The News Shopper names the people responsible for the ‘monitoring’ as John Watson, Elwyn Bryant and Michael Barnbrook. Looking them up on Google reveals that it was Mr. Barnbrook who was instrumental in bringing down ex-MP Derek Conway for abuse of Parliamentary funds and he has others in his sights. He is a retired police inspector so he must be well used to chasing criminals; good luck Michael, you are going to be busy.