8 August - The shame and the sham
With
Bexley council only a quarter of the way through its 16 week holiday from meetings, there
is not a lot going on, which on balance is probably a good thing. I received
an email over the weekend from someone who was interested to see that Tony Dawson
(at the time, Commander of Bexleyheath police) had been
dining with Maureen Holkham
(which was an abuse of a council credit card) who is a Deputy Director at Bexley
council with responsibility for CCTV.
The email explained that a crime reported to Bexleyheath police looked as though it might be linked in
some way to the council’s CCTV system. Neither Ms. Holkham nor Commander Dawson wanted to investigate
if the CCTV system had been used in an unauthorised fashion - every letter went unanswered. The email
correspondent says that the cosy links between Commander Dawson and those in charge of Bexley’s CCTV
“explains a lot”. I have no idea whether the complaint was justified or not and whether there was
collusion or not, but it does perhaps illustrate how these inappropriate relationships will be
interpreted. I still harbour some hope that the new police Commander has not been in
the borough long enough to be subverted by Bexley council, although with the
Harassment letter issue unresolved after nearly four months and the
obscene blog report
being two months old without sign of progress, maybe I am too much of an optimist.
Someone
who does not take 16 weeks holiday is Olly Cromwell who is
blogging again
after only two weeks in sunnier climes, but maybe it has made him forgetful. He is complaining
that Bexley council is claiming to have consulted him about traffic calming measures but didn’t
do so, at least not in any serious way that might reach him, and councillor Peter Craske
has dismissed all the comments submitted out of hand. Olly, I’m sure you
haven’t really forgotten after two weeks in the sun, but that is what Bexley
council does. It is so like the situation which caused me to start this website.
One of Craske’s minions told me that as a local resident I had been
consulted about
changes to a road close to where I live. I had not. Eventually I discovered that
a small number of residents who live on the road had been consulted and a larger
number who lived further from it than I do were consulted. Naturally few of those
far away were inclined to answer the consultation which helped reduce the percentage
said to be actively opposing the changes. Craske and Co. know every trick in the sham
consultation book. Every single objection was over-ruled by
Craske and the road changes went ahead. The result is a much increased accident rate.
I know it is much increased because Bexley council admitted it had not previously been
on their radar for accidents, now I see them every month or two.