15 April (Part 2) - Residents showered with TLC again
The
harassment issue has been referred to the Met. Police’s Directorate of
Professional Standards and for that and other reasons is unlikely to surface
again until next month so it would appear I must return to the routine
reporting of councillors’ peculiar relationships with the truth. Inevitably the name Craske comes to the fore.
Last November, and recorded in a blog two months ago, councillor Craske in one of his intemperate outbursts at a council meeting
offered to remove the Controlled Parking Zone
(CPZ) from Albert Road, Bexley. It never happened of course, it was just Craske losing his cool again.
The outburst had been directed at Nick Dowling who has been asking Craske to justify his soon to triple CPZ charges for a very long time. At
the next council meeting
Nicholas asked Craske why he hadn’t removed the CPZ. It was perhaps a slightly cheeky question but
Craske made the offer so why not follow up on it?
Craske said he had arranged a survey. You can see his full response in the
official council minutes reproduced here. Rather oddly the minute writer failed
to record the fact that Craske said that residents didn’t want the CPZ removed
and neither for that matter has Nicholas run a campaign for removal of any CPZ.
That was Craske’s offer and came straight out of the blue because Craske cannot
control his own tongue.
Mr. Dowling was surprised to hear that a survey of residents had taken place as he had heard nothing
about it from his neighbours or anyone else. So Nick decided he should find out
more. He put in a Freedom of Information request (FOI) to discover what
questions the residents of Albert Road were asked and what they said in reply.
The FOI question and answer is reproduced below.
Surprise, surprise, the council does not have any answer.
How would you interpret that given Craske’s unenviable track record in the truth
and integrity department? No one in Albert Road knows about the survey, no one
in the council has any evidence that there was a survey. You can be pretty sure
there was no survey, yet councillor Craske is prepared to stand up at a council
meeting and swear there was. Listening to you, working for you, deceiving you at every opportunity.