3 August (Part 3) - Not biting the hand that feeds it
“As a newcomer to Bexleyheath you have the opportunity to clean up the relationships
with Bexley’s dishonest Council and I look forward to rapid progress on
identifying the criminal who set up the obscene blog in my name and confirmation
that you have interviewed the Council Leader and the Chief Executive.”
And two weeks after that concluding sentence of an
email to Commander Stringer of Bexleyheath police one might be forgiven for thinking that the dubious
tradition of Bexleyheath police Commanders being very ready to be at Bexley
council’s beck and call but less responsive to the general public is continuing
under the new management. Not a word has been heard by way of a response to that
email, not even an acknowledgement.
Bexley council has always been very generous with donations of ammunition to be fired
back at them at will, all without fear of contradiction. Those pictured on the
site banner particularly so…
• Council leader Teresa O’Neill
claimed that under her control
Bexley had one of the lowest council tax rates in outer London, when we
don’t even make the better half,
thereby allowing the thought that she finds telling the truth to be an alien concept. The false claim is still
on the Bexley Conservatives’ website.
• Councillor Campbell was a director of the Thames Innovation Centre when its
board decided that it shouldn’t sack a paedophile manager from a position that
sometimes brought him into contact with children, but that it was best to let
him continue for seven months before, on his own initiative, he decided to
resign and leave with a job reference.
Campbell has also been an enthusiast for
curtailing the use of the Freedom of Information Act to ensure greater levels of council secrecy.
• Councillor Peter Craske will always be remembered for various statements at council meetings which weren’t
truthful and for coming up with justifications for imposing huge increases to
parking costs without any means of accounting for them.
• Michael Tarrant is the tyrant councillor who defended the prosecution of
residents
whose refuse bins were vandalised with no evidence whatever that they were
themselves at fault. Recent government guidance has been that minor
infringements of refuse regulations are not appropriate for prosecution and only
major fly-tipping incidents should be pursued.
• Councillor Philip Read cannot deny that he was stupid enough to buy
the internet
domain bexley-is-bonkers.com and Tweet
nonsense about his MP and insult residents.
• Councillor Katie Perrior pleaded poverty in a letter to
a local newspaper when she is founder and director of one of London’s top PR
companies and is forever condemned as a hypocrite.
• Councillor John Davey cannot deny he was behind
a planning stunt
involving temporary election offices and parked
Conservative Party websites on the Bexley Arts Council web space.
Such
facts and many others have been a boon whenever it has been necessary to
illustrate how Bexley council is prepared to lie and confuse. Perhaps Commander
Stringer is determined to offer a similar level of assistance.
Another embarrassing fact is that an earlier Bexleyheath police Commander, Tony Dawson,
was in hock to Bexley council because of the hospitality heaped upon him by the previous
council leader Ian Clement. (See image alongside). Accepting hospitality was one of the things that led
to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson’s resignation. Maybe it is why Commander
Tony Dawson isn’t around any more. It is looking increasingly likely that it will soon be possible
to state that his successor allowed three months to go by and achieved nothing towards solving
a crime so heavily laden with clues
that even his most junior detective could have done so if the political shackles had been lifted.
The inevitable conclusions will be drawn.
Images : Commander Dave Stringer. Commander Tony Dawson.
Extract from letter to ex-council
leader Ian Clement. Click it for complete letter.