13 November -
Lie detectors, parking permits and
13 November - Wickham Lane roundabout six months on - almost
There
was another case in this week’s News Shopper of Bexley’s rotten council
using a lie detector against a resident living alone
and it reveals that the operation is contracted to “a west Midlands based
company”. Interesting because you and I are generally prohibited from recording
phone calls without the other party’s permission but as I understand it the
Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act which so many council’s routinely abuse
allows councils to do it - but not a third party. Since when has a resident
living alone been a potential terrorist anyway?
I still don’t understand why anyone would agree to let the council talk to them
about the issue, especially after all the adverse publicity. Despite all the
restrictions on freedom introduced by Blair and Brown I do not recall a law that
says it is illegal not to answer a phone call. My phone is fixed so the bell
doesn’t ring if it doesn’t recognise the incoming number. Maybe that is why I am
still waiting for my lie-detector test.
When I attended the cabinet meeting on cuts
one of the expenses pot raiders took responsibility for this Nazi-like attack on residents
and luckily for him he was facing away from me and I didn’t catch his name; otherwise
I would have had a new entry in the Rogues’ Gallery.
Next Wednesday I shall be at the full council meeting with my note book and a report will be posted
here within hours of it ending.
The pictures of the Wickham Lane roundabout taken at 2 p.m. yesterday are deceptive. There were
long queues along each of the three entry roads but no traffic at the roundabout because of the long
intervals between ‘go’s’ that widely spaced three-way lights necessarily entail.
It’s not apparent from the photos and the ones taken two months ago
what has been changed. The first photo may show a wider carriageway but it may be an illusion caused by
the wide-angle lens. The roundabout appears to be the same size; maybe it has been moved. There was
nothing going on at the site, it was pouring with rain at the time and you can hardly blame the Conway
guys for packing up early on a wet Friday afternoon. So inconvenience to drivers by the thousand
continues daily plus the near-by residents who are suffering road closures,
presumably to prevent rat-running but reducing access to their own homes too.
Don’t forget this wasn’t Bexley council’s fault at all, I know because I
read it on their website.
Something else that hasn’t made much progress recently is the residents’ parking permit saga. A
letter was sent to Craske 13 days ago picking apart his false monetary claims and giving him 14 days before
legal action was to be commenced. Last I heard there had been nothing but a stony silence.